


Extra

by lonewolf255



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF, Youtube RPF
Genre: Another(anime/manga) AU, F/M, jacksepticeye - Freeform, yamimash - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-10-04
Packaged: 2018-03-23 05:36:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 67,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3756376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonewolf255/pseuds/lonewolf255
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A cursed college class, shrouded in rumors and mystery. Who will uncover the truth? And can anyone truly be saved? (An alternate universe with the anime/manga "Another" as the basis. Including as many YouTubers as I can fit into this story, including original characters.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

There’s a sleepy town in Oregon called Serenity. Rumor has it that a lot of unsuspecting travelers are in danger of going missing once they wander in. There’s an old folk legend around those parts, about how people are spirited away to a different dimension if they mess with the statues in a certain park…

However, this story isn’t about Serenity, but nearby college town Kennewick. Specifically a private college in town bearing its same name; “Kennewick College”, for the most talented of entertainers, gamers, and animators of that area. It’s said that if you go to Kennewick up until graduation, you will become well-known amongst the colleagues of that field. But it comes at a price…

If you become part of the spillover class, called Kennewick Miscellaneous (which happens often enough, when there is a flux of students graduating from high school) rumor has it that you are in danger.

Years ago, there was a tragedy at the school; an unlucky freshman student named Ray was killed on their way to the school from a mugging gone wrong. The unlucky student was a member of the Kennewick Miscellaneous class. Several distraught classmates, also in Kennewick Miscellaneous, refused to acknowledge the death of their friend, even after the funeral. Some say they even tried contacting Ray; but that has never been proven, and no evidence was ever found of the attempt. Eventually, that group of friends became so insistent that Ray was still alive, that the rest of the class just went along to keep the peace.

You would think that was the end of the tragedy; it had only just begun.

Soon the entire KM class was acting as if the death had never taken place. And at the end of the year, after everyone had received the class picture, there was an extra person in it. Standing in the back of the class in an otherwise unoccupied space was Ray, the deceased classmate.

The entire KM class had unknowingly created a rift related to that particular class. The rest of the story is hard to come by, but not impossible to discover. You only need to enter the class and find out for yourself. A mysterious curse, on a small class in a simple town in Oregon.

It’s time for someone to uncover the _truth_.


	2. A Town Called Kennewick

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

Hazel’s eyelids fluttered open slowly, as she woke up from her nap. She was lying in a hospital bed, and extremely bored, wondering when her sister was going to show up. She was being discharged the next day, after a week in the hospital due to a sudden collapse caused by a bad appendix. She sighed impatiently, what was it with her body and bad organs? First her gallbladder, and then her appendix. She was beginning to feel like an Operation™ board game.

Hazel wondered vaguely who Shan was going to bring with her; she had said she was bringing people from their class. Maybe she managed to get the teacher to come visit too? Shan had said something about him being handsome, and Hazel was curious. “Can’t wait until Shan gets here and relieves me of my boredom,” she thought to herself with a quiet chuckle. Hazel didn’t have to wait long before her assigned nurse came in with her lunch and another short conversation about the current season of Red vs. Blue ensued.

They were chatting cheerfully when the nurse suddenly looked to the doorway on her right and said “Oh, looks like you have some visitors today! Are these friends of yours, Hazel?”

Hazel also turned her attention to the door, and watched as a young man with glasses and a dark unkempt fauxhawk entered the room, followed by her sister and another guy with glasses and curly reddish-brown hair.

“Sorry we’re late, sis! Traffic was insane,” Shan ran to her sister’s side and ruffled her hair. “How are you feeling, little one?”

"I’m fine! Geez, my hair looks bad enough,” Hazel chided, trying to smooth down her silky locks as best she could, suddenly feeling self-conscious now that there were new people in the room, and handsome ones at that. The nurse quickly made her greetings and exited the room, not wanting to encroach on her patient’s privacy.

The first man greeted Hazel with a warm and excitable smile. “Nah, you have nothing to worry about; you look great.” The younger sister felt her cheeks heat up into a blush. This guy was in her new class?

“Let me introduce you to some of our class representatives. This is Mark Fischbach, he’s basically our class leader and apparently the class Romeo as well!” Mark rolled his eyes at her analysis, but still smiled. “See how he doesn’t try to deny it. And the quiet creepy guy behind me here is Michael Jones, another class rep.”

“I’m NOT creepy!” Michael fumed, his curls bouncing as he lashed out.

“Yeah keep an eye out for him, he’s got a bit of a temper. No class at all,” Shan continued with a smirk. Hazel knew her sister; knew she was kidding but with how angry Michael seemed to be getting, she wondered if he didn’t understand her humor. “I would have brought the rest of our reps, but I couldn’t get a hold of Richard, Lindsay had familial obligations, and Sean had to work. You can meet them when you get to class.”

Hazel kept an eye on Michael, but he seemed to have lapsed into an indifferent silence. He was watching her though, as if he didn’t trust her. What reason would he have to be so rude this quickly? …Maybe she was just imagining it.

“We heard that you might be in here for a bit, so we thought we’d bring you some of our notes so you can keep up when you’re feeling better,” Mark explained, handing Hazel a thick folder full of papers.

Hazel took them gratefully. “Thank you, I really appreciate it.” Mark smiled back and seemed about to say something but was cut off by another voice.

“So how are both of you in the same class anyway? You’re not twins from what I understand. Isn’t it a little… unusual?” Michael’s voice carried a poisoned tint of suspicion.

Shan looked at him with an expression that can only be described as a mixture of contempt and fear. “But what does my sister have to be afraid of? I don’t like this guy so far,” Hazel kept her thoughts to herself, but narrowed her eyes at the antagonist.

“Well not that it’s any of _your_ business, Jones, but if you must know, I took some time off after high school instead of going to college right away. So technically even if I am older, Hazel and I have the same college standing because we started college at the same time. So there you have your answer. Besides, people in college aren’t necessarily in the same age range, are they? It just so happens that this class-” Shan stopped herself and looked at Mark nervously. “Sorry Mark, did I say too much?”

“What do you mean? You can say whatever you want! What are you guys talking about?” Hazel interjected, suddenly feeling like there was an unspoken conversation going on way over her head.

Michael merely huffed in response, ignoring Hazel’s question and replying to Shan instead. “Whatever, I guess so. Still, it’s just weird to transfer in after the first two weeks.” Before Shan could get angry and argue further, he shrugged. “Whatever. Hey, are we done here or what? She’s got the notes; I gotta get back to Lindsay.” With that, he started walking toward the threshold of the room.

Shan sighed in annoyance. “To think I thought he was kinda cute when I first met him! I don’t know how his girlfriend deals with that sour temper of his,” she started rambling and ranting, causing a surprised laugh to escape from Mark, clearly the more benign of the two men. Upon closer inspection, Hazel saw something that made her feel uneasy at best.

Mark still had a smile on his face, but it seemed hollow, less genuine. “Hey, I guess we shouldn’t be disturbing you; you do need your rest after all!” he tried to laugh it off, and Shan nodded in agreement. He reached out to shake hands with Hazel. “We look forward to seeing you when you’re feeling better.”

Hazel reached out as well and complied to shake his hand. She muttered “Cold…” While Shan ran to adjust her sister’s blankets, complaining about the lack of heat in hospitals in general, and Mark turned to exit the room and give the girls some privacy.

Except he bumped into Michael on his way out; Michael never made it past the doorframe. He gestured roughly with his head pointing outward and started mumbling something to Mark in an agitated whisper. Mark’s face also took on a serious look, one that didn’t seem normal for such a good-natured face. It sounded like he said something like “He’s here,” and a lot more that Hazel didn’t catch. Shan noticed her sister’s point of focus and turned to look at the duo.

“Everything okay over there?” Mark tapped his nose twice, and Shan’s face immediately clouded over into a guarded expression. “Hey sis, I wanted to hang out more, but I left my homework at the apartment. I’ll go get it and come back to see you okay? Then I can get some work done while helping you catch up!” she suggested in a cheery tone, all the strange secretive gestures seeming to stop all at once. Maybe it was just because Hazel was in a hospital, and it made everything seem more secluded; after all, her sister would never hide anything from her.

“Yeah, sure. But it’s okay if you don’t feel like making the trip back here. Besides, I’ll be out in a couple of days! Don’t worry about me so much,” Hazel scolded, though she would welcome the company more than the lonely silence of the hospital room.

“No, I want to come back, so I will! Be back, I promise!” She turned to walk out of the room after the boys, who seemed to be waiting for her. “Hey little one, just be careful of who you talk to while you’re in here, okay?”

Hazel almost laughed. “Really Shan? I doubt that someone is going to come in and abduct me from a hospital! The only people I would talk to are the nurses and doctors anyway!” Hazel frowned then, that feeling of exclusion was back again. “What kind of advice is that, anyway? Is there something wrong?”

“No, just you know how much I get worried. I guess I’m just an overprotective older sibling, that’s all! Aren’t I always saying weird things?” Shan replied, laughing. But Hazel picked up on an anxious undertone to her words. No, it was just the way everyone’s voice reverberated against the hospital walls; nothing was wrong. Anyway, things would be back to normal once she was out of here for good.

Once the trio had left, Hazel was alone yet again (at least until Shan got back with her homework). Deciding to take a brief walk while waiting for her sister, she changed out of her hospital gown and got into her pajamas. She found herself wandering toward the elevator, albeit very slowly. Her nurse spotted her and gave her a warning look that said “be careful”, but the woman didn’t make a move to stop her. Hazel shuffled over to the elevator and got on, wanting to explore the lobby out of boredom.

She didn’t even notice that someone else was in the elevator until she heard light shuffling behind her. Turning around quickly (and irritating her surgery cuts in the process) Hazel came face to face with a young man about her age, gazing listlessly at the floor as if he still didn’t notice her. He was twirling around a single rose held in his hand.

What made the brunette gasp finally was how pale his skin was, how sunken his eyes looked under his glasses, as if he hadn’t slept in days. The gasp got his attention, and his dull brown eyes lifted slightly to meet hers. “Ah, I’m… sorry.” Hazel said slowly as the boy’s eyes slowly drifted back to the twirling rose petals.

His voice was almost too low to hear as he responded. “What do you have to apologize for?” Hazel didn’t have an answer, so instead wracked her brain for something to break the tension; he’d scared her, but if he hadn’t noticed she wasn’t going to bring it to his attention.

“I just didn’t know anyone was in the elevator, that’s all. I guess I don’t pay much attention to my surroundings,” she said with a humorless chuckle. The boy didn’t respond or attempt to communicate, leaving the burden on Hazel. She didn’t know why she was bothering to try talking to him, but his manner and appearance were worrisome, and she took him for a hospital patient in a bad mood. She felt the need to try to make him feel a little better. “Well, my name is Hazel,” no response, “…So do you go to school around here?”

The boy raised a lazy brow while looking up at her again, probably bemused that she was still attempting a conversation. He nodded, once.

“Oh, cool. So where do you attend?”

His eyes returned to the rose yet again, this time in morose contemplation. “Kennewick College.”

The door opened up to the ground floor as Hazel replied. “Oh, me too! I just moved here…” She was cut off by the boy slowly moving past her into the lobby area; she followed behind him, forgetting briefly why she’d decided to come down in the first place. Stopping in a deserted hallway leading to an unmarked door in the way back of the hospital, she asked “Well, what’s your name?”

He stopped walking finally, standing in front of a door marked “Employees only beyond this point”, the rose still held firmly between his fingers. “Ray Narvaez J-” he paused for a beat, “Ray Narvaez.” He walked through the doors in front of him suddenly and without hesitation, almost as if he were trying to get away from her.

She stood in the hallway alone for a full minute, wondering what had possessed her to make her follow him, wondering if it had even been real, until she realized upon glancing through the window of the door that she knew where she was.

The strange boy from the elevator had just gone into the morgue.


	3. Kennewick Miscellaneous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

“Hazel, what are you gonna wear today? The first day is the most important one!” Shan held up her index finger for emphasis, as if she had given the wisest of advice when in reality it couldn’t be more mundane. The younger sister raised an eyebrow at her from the other side of their table.

“I always dress nicely, Shan, _especially_ on the first day.” She was finally in the apartment that she would be sharing with her sister while they attended Kennewick College. She was relieved to finally be out of the hospital; so much so that she had almost completely forgotten about the boy with the rose. Almost. Although admittedly, she hadn’t gotten a chance to mention it to Shan yet, she also figured it wasn’t a big deal anyway so she wouldn’t bother to do so.

Shan’s face fell into a stubborn pout, her dark brown curls flipping in front of her face. “Don’t give me that look! And what on earth are you wearing anyway?”

Shan smiled as she motioned to her outfit; a typical private-school uniform, with a white button-up shirt paired with a fitted blazer, a maroon tie, and a plaid skirt falling just above her knees. Her shoes were plain black dressy shoes with appropriate hosiery. “This, my dear sister, is the uniform required for each member of our class’s tactics team, of which I am a part of!”

Hazel nearly snorted into her orange juice. “The what? What the hell is a tactics team? It sounds like a tacky after school club!” Then recovering herself, said “But I’m sure it’s very nice to be in, Shan.” She headed to her room to get dressed for the day, listening to her sister speak through the cracked door.

“Well, you’ll find out more about it at school today probably. Mark is the one who will explain everything to you; class policy, he takes care of all of that. But I will say this, just remember that you’re the one who wanted to go to this school, even though I opposed it. Especially after I found out… But anyway, I’m not making any sense, am I?” Shan said with a half-hearted laugh.

“No, you’re not. I know that I chose to come to this school; it _was_ my decision, after all! What could be so important that I would wish I didn’t come here? And you still haven’t told me what you guys do!” Hazel said in a warning tone as she walked out of her room. It was true that Shan had warned against her coming here, but she still didn’t understand why. She looked forward to seeing what Mark had to say about it, whatever it was.

And it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he was really quite handsome…

On that note, she wondered idly if that boy she’d met in the hospital was in her class too. She would probably look around for him; he hadn’t looked well when she last saw him, she would have to see if he was doing better…

Shan snapped her fingers next to Hazel’s ear. “Hey sis, we gotta get going! There’s gonna be traffic on the way in, and we need to find a good spot.”

The younger sibling huffed that she didn’t like to be rushed (as if her sister didn’t know) but complied. Soon they were driving down the awakening streets of Kennewick. “Hmm, didn’t expect that. I thought Kennewick would be less populated,” Hazel commented as she observed that there was indeed a bit of traffic on the roads already.

“Told you. Of course, what do you expect when this town’s college boasts to make you the best in any career field that you desire? Anyone who believes in that stuff would be throwing themselves through the doors,” Shan responded, eyes trained on the road.

“Yeah…” Hazel wondered whether or not she should bring it up. “So, why didn’t you want me to come here with you? If it could help both of us to be more successful, I don’t understand how you could want me to miss out on that.”

Shan’s face furrowed into a frown. “It’s a long story, sis. And something that I can’t talk to you about, at least not until you hear from Mark. I hate not being able to say anything, especially to you, but… it’s my duty as part of our class tactics team to uphold the rules of the class, and this is one of them.”

Hazel was baffled by her sister’s answer; it wasn’t what she was expecting to hear at all. And that made her mad. “What do you mean, you can’t ‘talk to me’ about it? What the hell is going on, anyway? This is too weird!”

“Look, if I could do something about it, I would. Just trust me okay? You’ll know everything in due time. Find Mark when we get to class.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Mark wasn’t in class. After a quick search, Shan shuffled up to her sister sheepishly. “It, er… seems that he’s not here today. He contacted Sean this morning and said he wasn’t feeling well. So…”

Hazel crossed her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at her elder sibling. “So am I not having that talk with him today?”

“It would seem… not.” Before Hazel got too upset, Shan grabbed her hand and started pulling her further into the room. “But hey, you can meet everyone, since it’s your first day today! Come meet the rest of the tactics team! They’re really cool once you get to know them!”

The tactics team was all grouped together and turned their heads collectively when the siblings got closer. Some of them seemed to eye Hazel with the same suspicion that Michael had displayed earlier, but Shan didn’t seem to notice. “Hey guys, for those of you that couldn’t make it to the hospital, this is my sister Hazel! Sis, you’ve already met Michael,” Michael nodded curtly in her direction, “which I’m really sorry about, by the way-”

“HEY!”

“-This is Richard (his friends call him Necro, don’t ask); over here is our Irish transfer student Sean but he prefers Jack on occasion for some reason? Again, don’t ask. Finally, the lovely lady in red is Lindsay. She’s a real sweetheart, so don’t be afraid to ask her anything. The guys are just okay, I guess…” She was kidding of course, though Michael seemed to be the only one that didn’t recognize that fact and huffed indignantly.

Hazel nodded shyly as everyone greeted her wholeheartedly. “It’s nice meeting you guys. I hope my sister hasn’t caused you too much trouble.”

“Hey!”

“When doesn’t she cause trouble?” Sean laughed, clearly joking and earning a reciprocal nudge from Shan.

“I saved your ass during the last math test, so watch it pal!” Shan replied with a grin, then turned to her sister with a brighter smile. “Hey, why don’t you go introduce yourself to everyone else? I bet they’re going to love you!”

Hazel obeyed, just in case the tactics team needed to have some sort of private meeting. She found herself drifting around the classroom and finding out who everyone is; almost everyone had a nickname of sorts. After making her rounds and at least greeting everyone personally herself (though she would still be unfamiliar with their names until she got to know them) she sat in a corner of the room to observe the classroom dynamics.

She first turned her attention to where her sister was; there did indeed seem to be some sort of meeting taking place and Shan was gesturing heavily with her hands as if trying to emphasize a point. Hazel made a mental note to ask her sister what that was all about later and turned her attention to elsewhere in the room.

She watched a group of six friends laughing and joking around with each other. She remembered that they had come up with a group name of sorts, the “grumps” or something like that. Hazel didn’t really understand their meaning but they seemed nice enough so she had been polite in return. As nice as they seemed, they also seemed to be most comfortable around each other, so she doubted they would go out of their way to interact with her much.

Next she turned her attention to the trio of Brits she’d met, Minx, Aaron and Gavin. They seemed to be “collaborating” over homework at the moment, reminding Hazel that she had homework to finish as well if she wanted to stay caught up. Still, she opted to people-watch a little longer before looking at it.

She glanced over to see another trio of friends, two of which were apparently an established couple. Felix, Marzia, and their friend Cry were happily chatting with each other. Hazel had noticed that when she had approached, Felix and his girlfriend had no problem including her in the conversation, though their friend Cry seemed quieter when she was near compared to now. She came to the conclusion that he was probably shy and not too comfortable around people that he barely knew; she couldn’t fault him for that.

Richard’s girlfriend, Rose was sitting alone, finishing up some homework while she waited for her boyfriend’s meeting to be over. Sitting near her were Bob and Wade, whom she occasionally consulted for help on problems she was stuck on.

Hazel’s eyes lingered on the other side of the room; the boy she’d met at the hospital, Ray, was sitting in a corner on the opposite side of the room by himself, staring listlessly at the desk in front of him. She hadn’t noticed him when she first got into the classroom. Was it her imagination, or did he seem upset about something?

The younger sibling was just standing from her chair to walk over to him and say hi when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She could still see her sister speaking in hushed tones with the rest of her team, so it wasn’t Shan. Not knowing what to expect, she turned around and found herself looking at someone she hadn’t met yet; he must have just gotten there himself. “Hey, you must be Shantel’s sister! I’m Jordan,” he smiled and held his hand out to her.

“Hazel. It’s nice to meet you,” the brunette said and started to turn again, hoping to get a chance to speak with Ray. Why it was so important to her, she didn’t know; she just hated to see anyone that dejected and felt the need to try to help. But Jordan wasn’t done with her, it seemed.

“Um, you know what, if you need help getting caught up in class, I don’t mind helping you out. Just say the word.”

“Okay… Thank you.” She started trying to walk toward Ray’s desk a second time.

“So, um, this layout is really weird for a college class, isn’t it? I mean usually you get to pick your own classes and when you take them and all that. But for KM, we basically have the same classmates all semester, same teacher, same room, same everything. It’s like elementary all over again.”

Hazel raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Jordan. Was he keeping her here on purpose? Why would he bother? Stop it Hazel, he’s probably just making conversation. “Yeah, well I guess it’s a little weird, but it’s a private college; they can run it anyway they’d like, I guess. After all, this is a spillover class, which means all of the other classes are full, right? There wouldn’t be room for us anywhere else.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. So, what are you majoring in, Hazel?”

Hazel didn’t get a chance to reply to her classmate, because a man with piercing blue eyes and light brown hair had just hurried into the room with a briefcase sloppily packed, papers sticking out at the corners as if they’d been stuffed there in a rush. She watched as her sister stopped arguing with Michael long enough to turn to the door and see who it was, then launching herself at the stranger with great force. Hazel cringed, afraid that Shan was going to hug him, but she stopped just short of doing so. She assumed that this must be their teacher.

“Ryan, you’re late! How on earth do you expect us to learn with no teacher?” Shan half-scolded, with her hands on her hips and a playful smile on her lips. Hazel expected their teacher to tell her to sit down or something, but he gave a light laugh instead.

“Oh yes, I’m sure that everyone was so worried that I’m five minutes late. Admit it; you guys were hoping I didn’t come in so you could have the day off.” The teacher then noticed Hazel and said “Oh, is this your sister?” Hazel walked up to them after excusing herself from her conversation with Jordan and looking around; she realized that no one else in the room had even paid attention to her sister’s strange outburst, meaning it was a normal and frequent occurrence.

“Hi, I’m Hazel Thomas. You must be our teacher, right?” Hazel asked politely (she was almost sick of introducing herself over and over again).

He smiled and nodded. “Yep, that’s me. Ryan Haywood, it’s nice to finally meet you. We were all concerned to hear about your hospital visit, I hope everything is okay now?” Hazel observed that he almost sounded nervous about asking her.

“Uh, yeah,” Hazel smiled back. “I had to have my appendix removed. Apparently they were worried about complications of something, which is why they kept me in the hospital for so long, they didn’t want to take chances. I thought it was a little unusual that they kept me for so long, but I guess they had their reasons.” She was starting to focus her attention on her sister, who was now speaking quietly to Jordan. He had silently walked up to the trio minutes ago.

Ryan relaxed a bit. “Well, I’m glad to hear that you’re okay now. And you had a bit of an extra break from school, so now I bet you’re ready to focus all that energy on learning, am I right?” He was kidding, but it came off as such a lame joke, even Shan couldn’t stop a sigh from escaping. “…Yeah, that was bad. Just sit anywhere you’d like and we’ll get started on the workload for today. I think for math we’re gonna start with a bit of graphing practice…”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

During one of their scheduled class breaks, Hazel nudged her sister and said in a low voice “So what happened this morning anyway? You looked angry.” Surprisingly, she was having a hard time reading Shan’s expression, who was keeping an even look.

“Oh, that. Don’t worry about it, class duty bullshit. Looks like I’m stuck with cleanup again today, so we might have to stay behind longer.” Hazel didn’t believe that story but before she could counter Shan switched to another topic. “So what do you think about everyone? I noticed Jordan practically talking your ear off earlier. See anyone you might want to get to know better?” she asked in a nonchalant manner.

“Everyone seemed nice enough. I don’t know, I guess I’ll just wait and see if anyone in particular can put up with me,” Hazel answered honestly. “I didn’t get a chance to properly meet everyone but maybe later today I can.” She looked around, noticing that Ray had disappeared from his seat in the corner of the classroom.

“What do you mean? I was watching you, you’ve met everyone.” Shan said almost too quickly.

Hazel’s brow furrowed as she started to argue back. “No I didn’t. You were busy arguing with your team to notice I guess, but-”

“Hazel, I _saw_ you talk to everyone in the room, I know what I saw. Anyway, we should keep working so we won’t have homework later. I noticed that Ryan likes to give us extra work. I’ll have to talk to him about that…” she turned back to the paper in front of her and continued writing.

Exasperated by having been dismissed so quickly and in no mood to argue, Hazel stood from her desk. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom,” she lied, wanting to get up and explore. She didn’t know why she was lying to her sister, but perhaps it had something to do with how annoyed she was getting in her sibling’s presence and she didn’t want Shan to tag along.

Her sister stopped writing and looked at her with a piercing stare before saying “Want me to help you find it?”

“No, I can look on my own. Shouldn’t be too hard to find.” With that she all but sprinted from her desk and quickened her pace until she was well out of sight of the classroom. After slowing her gait to a normal speed, she started wandering up and down hallways, peering into the windows of empty classrooms out of curiosity.

She was so absorbed in exploring that she didn’t hear anyone walk up behind her until that person spoke. “Hi Hazel!” The younger Thomas jumped and quickly faced the source of the voice. Standing there was Lindsay, wearing a sheepish smile and clasping her hands behind her back. “I’m sorry, did I scare you?” Hazel shrugged, trying to play it off, and Lindsay giggled. “I do that to Michael all the time. He says I’m as quiet as my cats, and yells at me for sneaking up on him. But he’s usually kidding.”

The redhead started to walk alongside Hazel, who suddenly felt the need to make an excuse. “I wanted to take a walk before our break was over. Sitting down for that long makes me anxious,” she explained, her eyes straight ahead.

“Yeah, I get that. I was doing the same thing; Ryan tends to drone on and on about a lesson forever. Sometimes I think that your sister is the only one that can put up with his style of teaching. Between the two of them, it’s kind of hard to understand what they’re talking about sometimes.” Lindsay said with a laugh.

Hazel sighed. “Yeah, I noticed that too. Shan just likes to sound smarter than she actually is; I wouldn’t be surprised if she looks all of this stuff up on her phone before she starts talking about it.” Both girls started laughing at the thought of Shan secretly Google-searching things under her desk before raising her hand.

“Your sister is really… uh, animated. Especially when Ryan is involved.” Lindsay said slowly.

“Are you suggesting that my sister has a crush on said teacher?”

“Well, that’s kind of what it looks like. Not that I’m going to judge or anything, people like who they like. Did you notice anything unusual about her behavior? I mean, you’re her sister, I guess you would know better than anyone.”

Hazel bit her lip as she thought. “Well, I did think she was acting strange about him, and she said we had a really hot teacher, so that explains that. But in general, I think Shan’s been acting weird ever since she started school here at Kennewick,” Hazel admitted, thinking back to all the times that morning that she couldn’t tell what her sibling was thinking.

Lindsay paused before answering. “I’m sure it’s just stress. This is the first time she’s been involved in class activities, right? I think she said that she never got involved in things like that before. Maybe she’s just getting used to it?”

“Hmm… Maybe.” Hazel had become distracted, having just seen Ray at the end of an empty hallway they were passing. He ducked into a side alcove and out of her view. Lindsay didn’t seem to take notice of their fellow classmate, but she did notice Hazel’s attention starting to wander.

“Are you okay? Maybe we should get back to class so you can sit down. You’re still not used to moving around much after the surgery, are you?” Lindsay meant well, but Hazel was intent on following the mysterious boy from the hospital. Just to check on him, she told herself, just to make sure that he was okay.

“No I’m fine. I’ll be in class before the break is over,” Hazel said before dashing down the hallway where she had seen Ray just seconds before.

“Wait!” Lindsay called after her, but Hazel didn’t listen. It didn’t seem like Lindsay had followed her either.

Turning into the same alcove she had seen Ray go in revealed a hidden staircase leading up. She followed it up, floor by floor, until she found herself in front of a door that said “CAUTION, ENTRY TO ROOF PROHIBITED”. But the door was cracked.

With a shrug, she pushed the door open and walked outside. Wind whipped her hair to the side as a strong gust passed the college, warning of a coming storm. She saw Ray staring out into the horizon with a blank expression, just watching the stormclouds rolling closer in the sky.

Hazel waited until she was a few feet away before calling to him. “Ray?”

At first she thought he might be ignoring her (he seemed to make her think that a lot) but he slowly responded by turning his head slightly in her direction, though not looking directly at her. “Hmm?”

“Are you okay? I don’t think you’re supposed to be on the roof.”

She saw a grim smirk flitter across his face. “Got me. But you’re not supposed to be here either.” He paused before saying “It’s fine; no one will bother to stop me, I don’t think.”

Hazel got confused and for a second thought he was referring to jumping from the roof. Fear seized her as she asked “No one will stop you from doing what? What are you going to do?”

Ray quirked an eyebrow at her. “Well, I meant that no one will stop me from being on the roof. Why, did you think I was going to jump or something?” He laughed at the scowl he received from her; it was a warm, pleasant noise, though there was a bitter undertone to it. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t do that. I don’t think there would be any point.”

“Well, I… I just wanted to check on you. When we met in the hospital, you didn’t seem well. But it looks like they let you out, so you’re fine… right?” Hazel asked.

“Did I meet you at the hospital? I really don’t remember. Figures… hospitals are a terrible place to meet someone. You should be careful who you talk to in a hospital. Never know if you’ll see them again.” Ray responded, but his voice sounded faint, like his mind was far away from their actual discussion.

“I remember you went into the morgue, holding a rose. What were you doing there? You didn’t seem well enough to be walking around in the first place, and to go into a restricted area like that-” Ray cut her off from speaking.

“Wow, for someone I just met, you sure ask a lot of questions. Who are you, my mom? I don’t owe you an explanation for anything.” Ray’s tone had turned acrimonious.

Feeling embarrassed, Hazel started getting defensive. “Well, I just got curious, that’s all! I mean who just walks into a morgue for no… Ugh, never mind, I guess it’s none of my business. You just looked really sick, so I got concerned. Sorry.” After a beat, she added “I guess you’re not one for restrictions anyway. Here we are on the roof, after all.”

Ray shrugged, seeming to calm down as suddenly as he’d gotten angry. “Anyway, I wasn’t the one in the hospital. I lost someone important to me that day, so it’s no wonder I don’t remember much. I guess I must have met you there though… I remember your name. It’s Hazel, isn’t it?” Hazel nodded, not sure what she should say, after having embarrassed herself so thoroughly in front of him. “Do you have a sister, Hazel?” Ray asked quietly after a long silence between them. He was now looking at the approaching storm again.

That question got Hazel curious, so she fought the urge to retort with “That’s none of your business” and instead replied “Yeah, she’s the one I sit next to… There’s kind of a family resemblance, you know?”

“She’s a part of the tactics team.” That didn’t sound like a question.

“Yes… So…?” Hazel was beginning to wonder where he was going with this line of questioning.

Ray turned away from the roof’s edge and walked toward her, toward the door, until he was just past her; she turned to watch him with a questioning gaze. “Is it possible for your sister to be on the tactics team, and yet you don’t know anything about the curse?”

“Curse?!” Her eyes widened; Hazel had heard no mention about a curse.

“Yeah, just as I thought. You didn’t know. If I were you, I’d ask your sister all about it. She’ll tell you everything, I think. And,” he bit his lip before turning away and continuing to walk past the threshold of the door, into the building. “…if you know what’s good for you, you won’t try to talk to me anymore. Stick to your studies, and everything should be fine.”

The door leading to the staircase closed behind him, and just like that, he was gone. Hazel let out a breath that she hadn’t known she’d been holding, staring at the static door until she realized that class must have started a while ago, and hurried back to the classroom.


	4. Whispers of a Curse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

Hazel returned to the classroom, and it was obvious that the lesson was well under way. Though Ryan turned a blind eye to her as she was walking in, Shan did not. “Where were you?” she hissed under her breath, not looking up from her notes.

Hazel couldn’t admit to being on the roof, so she simply replied “I was just having a look around the college; I wanted to explore a bit.”

“Well I hope you’re happy now. Not only have you interrupted class in the middle of Ryan’s lecture, you may have gotten yourself into worse trouble than you can imagine.”

Hazel had had enough of all the cryptic warnings from her sister and said in a voice loud enough that it might have been heard by surrounding classmates, “Okay, so what aren’t you telling me?”

Shan snuck a sideways glance. “What are you talking about?”

“I know about the curse.”

Shan was so surprised that she couldn’t lower her voice as she exclaimed “You _what_?”

Ryan finally turned from his spot at the front of the class frowning. “Is something wrong, Shantel?”

The older sibling mumbled “Sorry, Ryan, just overexcited about the lesson,” Ryan gave her a pointed look before returning to the lesson. Shan didn’t look at or attempt to talk to Hazel again until the end of the lecture.

When she did speak, it seemed as if she were going to ignore the whole conversation, at least for now. “Okay, since I have to stay behind for clean-up duty, you can just hang out until I’m done, okay?” And with that, she walked up to the front of the room to supposedly receive instruction from Ryan.

So Hazel stood to the side of the door, resting against the wall as she watched her fellow classmates vacate the room, some of them saying goodbye to her and each other as they passed. Lindsay shuffled up to her, an apologetic expression on her face. “So hey… you didn’t get into any trouble, did you?” asked the redhead, keeping her eyes on the light switch on the wall.

“No, I didn’t,” Hazel replied, blinking in surprise. She may have gotten into a little tiff with Shan, but didn’t consider that to be any form of “trouble”; more like a daily occurrence, really.

Lindsay immediately looked relieved. “Oh good, because that’s not what I wanted. I er, told her that you wandered off toward the roof, but I didn’t want to get you into trouble. I just thought that it might be dangerous, like if something happened. Shan said she would go looking for you if you didn’t come back soon, but then you came back a little bit after class started, so I guess that she didn’t have to… I mean, I-” Lindsay was starting to look flustered, as if she didn’t know what to say next, like she was being careful of what words came out of her mouth.

“Well, it’s okay, I’m fine. I won’t hold it against you for looking out for me,” she paused before adding “Thanks, Lindsay.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Lindsay replied, but a pleased smile spread across her features.

Michael decided at that moment to join the girls in their discussion. “Lindsay, I have to stay back and help with clean-up today, so you can wait out in the hall or something.” He looked over to Hazel as if he had just noticed her presence. “Oh, hey. Glad to see you’re out of the hospital.”

“Thanks,” Hazel said, surprised by the sincerity of his words. She had assumed that he hated her sister, and by association, would dislike her as well. “Um, sorry about my sister’s behavior yesterday…”

Michael emitted a genuine laugh. “Oh don’t worry about that, Shan and I seem to always disagree about something. I’m used to it by now.”

Lindsay sighed. “You guys disagree on everything. You could form a comedy duo or something.”

“Seriously though, is she always so high-strung? She has an answer for everything, it seems,” he continued, shaking his head.

Hazel became thoughtful for a moment. “Well, not always. She used to be quieter, more reserved. I guess after the incident, she was determined to enjoy life more…”

Michael frowned, suddenly serious. “There was an incident?”

“Yeah, early last year. I guess incident is a bit overdramatic. She was supposed to have attended Kennewick before, but then before she could finalize her enrollment and take the orientation, she got sick on that weekend.”

“Was it anything serious?” Lindsay asked, sounding concerned. Michael was silent, listening intently with a deepening scowl.

“Apparently not. She was having some stomach problems. We took her to the hospital, and they said it was just a stomach flu going around or something. Shan had insisted she felt like she was dying, but it turned out to not be serious.” Hazel said as she watched her sister walk up quickly behind her fellow teammates, having been within earshot of the conversation toward the end.

“Michael, we need to get this damn cleaning done, so if you don’t mind helping like you said you would…” Shan demanded, crossing her arms. Michael didn’t bother to argue, but avoided her gaze as he shifted past her and reached for a broom. She then shot a displeased glance at her sister. “Wait in the hallway while I clean please,” she asked, though her tone and her face didn’t match up right.

Lindsay and Hazel found themselves waiting outside of the classroom for the duo to finish cleaning the classroom. Lindsay was fidgeting absentmindedly with the sleeve of her shirt. “I wish Mark had been here today,” she admitted quietly.

Hazel raised an eyebrow at her. “Thinking about switching boyfriends?”

“No, not like that. I just mean that if Mark had been here today he could have told you about our class rules and everything. It would have made everything so much simpler…” Lindsay trailed off.

“Why does Mark have to tell me the class rules? You and my sister are part of the tactics team too, aren’t you? Why can’t you guys just tell me anything? Is this about the curse I heard about?” Hazel didn’t mean to lash out at Lindsay, but her irritation about all the secrecy ended up getting the best of her.

Lindsay’s eyes widened. “Who told you about that?”

“Does it matter? Just tell me, Lindsay. Someone has to, don’t they?” Hazel asked, glancing over at the redhead. “I don’t like being the only one not knowing what’s going on.”

Lindsay bit her lip and glanced at the entrance of the classroom before saying in a low voice. “I was against this rule, you know. I was against a few of the class policies that we voted on, but I didn’t say anything about it. Your sister doesn’t like it either, but…” She took a deep breath. “We agreed on the first day that Mark would be the one to explain the class rules and policies. I just went along with it because everyone else did. I think that everyone else didn’t want the responsibility on their hands, and Mark was the only one willing to accept it. Shan opposed it, but she was outnumbered. That’s why none of us can talk to you about this. We took a vote, and the rule was created. If we go against the rules, things might… happen.”

“But what is all this nonsense about a curse? What do you guys think will happen if you go against the rules? This is a special case, isn’t it?” Hazel pleaded. “You haven’t actually told me anything important yet. Can’t you just bend the rules this once?”

“I know it must sound really stupid, but I just can’t. I guess I’m just a coward but,” she smiled sadly, as if she might cry any second. “I’m scared to go against it. I don’t know what to believe, but if what I heard turns out to be true, then I don’t want the guilt on my head. That’s why I have to leave it to Mark. We all do. It’s selfish and it’s not fair to him or you, but I can’t.”

Hazel didn’t know how to respond, but Lindsay looked so close to tears that she couldn’t push the issue any further. “Then don’t worry. I won’t ask you again, okay? It’s fine,” she replied in quiet dejection. She was beginning to feel like she would never know the truth.

Soon they heard Michael’s voice at the door. “Lindsay, let’s go. We’re done here,” he glanced at Hazel and nodded once in greeting, but his expression wasn’t as sincere as it had been before. It was as if he were someone different right them. Lindsay tried to smile and gave Hazel a side hug.

“See you tomorrow, then!” she said in as cheerful a manner as she could manage, then took Michael’s hand in her own as they walked away from the classroom. Hazel found herself waiting alone in the hallway for longer than expected. She heard hushed voices from within, and figured that maybe Shan was talking to Ryan about an assignment. Or maybe not, but Hazel found that she didn’t have the energy to investigate at the moment.

Looking around, she realized that the hallway wasn’t quite as deserted as she had originally thought. Someone else was there; leaning so inconspicuously against a wall that he almost wasn’t there, was Cry. He glance in her direction maybe once, but seemed uncomfortable and stayed silent.

Not knowing what to do, Hazel forced a smile. “Hey.”

“…Hey.”

It struck her then that he was near enough that he probably could have heard her entire conversation with Lindsay. Maybe that’s why he was so uncomfortable; he felt like he eavesdropped on something that he shouldn’t have heard. Or maybe…

“So, how much are you not allowed to tell me?” she was half-kidding, but the answer that she got surprised her.

“Probably a lot.”

“And so you won’t?” she asked, curious.

“Maybe.”

“Maybe isn’t a good answer.”

“I know.”

Hazel raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you know what I’m talking about, or are you just messing with me?”

He took a while to answer that. “I know more than I want to know, and more than you think that you want.”

She couldn’t help but giggle at that. A riddler, huh? “Okay. I know less than I need to, and you know more than you want. Seems like we should meet in the middle somewhere.”

“In a perfect world, maybe. But this world is less than perfect.”

“So you can’t tell me anything about the curse,” Hazel said in disappointment.

Yet again, Cry surprised her. “I never said that.” He shifted so that he was leaning on his shoulder against the wall, facing her. “Ask away.”

“What do you know about the curse?” she asked.

“Probably not everything. But I know the basics of the story.”

“Tell me.”

“Hazel!” Hazel and Cry both looked toward the source of the voice coming from the classroom. Shan was walking through the threshold, and shooting a warning glance at Cry. “I’m glad that you’re making friends, but we should get going.”

Hazel frowned at her sister. “But I’m in the middle of a conversation.”

“About what, exactly?” Shan asked, looking between them. “Did I interrupt a confession here? My bad.”

“No; I was going to tell her about the curse,” Cry replied bluntly. Shan merely sighed.

“Then you should have told her quicker so I wouldn’t have to intervene. And that’s going against class policy, Cry. I should probably write you up for it.” Shan crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him.

Cry didn’t even flinch. “Do what you have to do, and I’ll do the same,” was his calm reply.

“I’ll turn a blind eye just this once. Don’t let me catch you next time, alright?” Shan chastised. Cry merely shrugged, leaving Shan to deal with her sister. “Come on, sis. Homeward bound!” Just like that, she was back to her usual cheerful self.

As they were passing Cry, he lightly laid a hand on Hazel’s shoulder. “What you don’t know allows you to see what everyone else can’t.” With that, he lifted his hand and pulled out his phone; he seemed to have no intention of leaving the school yet. Hazel was left with his words bouncing around in her head. She didn’t know what to make of it; what did he mean by that?

Both sisters were silent as they drove to their apartment after school. But the silence was far from companionable, which was unusual for the siblings. Hazel was still brooding over their earlier fight and pondering over Cry’s words. As for Shan, well… It was too hard to understand what Shan was even thinking these days to manage a guess.

Finally it was the older sibling that broke the silence as they neared the apartment. “Why did you have to tell them about that time at the hospital? Not only was it embarrassing, now Michael will probably tell everyone else and they’ll start to doubt me.”

“What do you mean, they’ll start to doubt you, what is there to doubt? Oh wait, let me guess… You can’t tell me because it has something to do with the curse or class rules and you’re waiting for Mark to go over it all with me,” Hazel deadpanned in a sarcastic tone.

“Yes, actually; I’m so glad you’re starting to understand,” Shan replied in an embittered tone.

“But why? It doesn’t make any damn sense, not to mention that curse stories are bullshit anyway!” Hazel countered. They were starting to walk through the parking lot of the apartment complex, so both girls lowered their voices as they argued.

“Either way, it’s better safe than sorry. I’m not arguing about this, okay? You will hear about everything tomorrow, because Mark will definitely be back by then. If I could tell you anything more, I would.” Shan sighed, rubbing at her temples.

“Why are you guys putting all the responsibility on Mark? It’s not like you at all, to put your burden on someone else,” Hazel reminded her sister, hoping to guilt her into opening up.

“I know. Mark was the one who volunteered for it, it was his damn idea! He didn’t want anyone else to feel responsible, just in case it was true… Alright fine, I’ll tell you.” She sat down at their table, and Hazel followed her lead. “I’m not an expert on the curse, but I know bits and pieces; I bet nobody knows the whole story anymore. It started about twenty years ago, when Kennewick College was just becoming famous for having the most successful graduating classes.”

“Our class, Kennewick Miscellaneous, was first created then, because the carrying capacity of the rest of the classes was already full, but the college got greedy, wanted to keep the money of the students even though they didn’t have room for them in the actual curriculum. KM is the first spillover class of its kind, I think. Anyway, that first year there was a tragedy. One of the students from KM was killed. I think it was an accident. I think someone else on the tactics team heard it was a mugging incident. Anyway, it doesn’t matter how it happened; someone died. But even though Ray was dead, his friends…”

“Ray?” Hazel cut her sister off. “The student’s name was Ray? That’s weird isn’t it? After all, we have a Ray in our class too.”

Shan stiffened at her sister’s words. Swallowing hard, as if her mouth had gone dry, she said “You- you’ve met someone named Ray? In our class? That’s not possible, sis.”

“Yeah it is, I’ve talked to him. Twice. He’s got short, really dark hair, bushy eyebrows, light brown eyes, he wears glasses…”

“Hazel, listen carefully; _there’s no one like that in our class!_ I know everyone, it’s part of my job as a member of the tactics team, and there’s no one in our class that fits that description.” Shan had such a serious look on her face that, had Hazel not talked to Ray twice already, she would have believed that she was mistaken.

She felt sweat start to form along her hairline and over her palms, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up as a chilling fear set in. “You’re scaring me now. I know that I’ve talked to this guy twice.”

A look akin to pity rested on her sister’s face now as she shook her head. “How could you talk to him Hazel? I… really don’t know who you mean. Ask anyone in class, they’ll tell you the same.”

“Alright, fine then; I will ask.” With that, she grabbed a jacket and set out of the apartment, determined to back up her story; never mind the fact that she didn’t remember how to get to the school or know where anyone else lived. Still, she walked on relentless, until she found herself in front of the hospital she had been in just a few days prior. Looking up at the tall building before her, she suddenly remembered that she had gotten a few phone numbers from people in class.

She dialed Rose, since she was the first number that she came across. “Hello?” Rose’s voice said over the line, slightly confused.

“Hey, it’s Hazel. Shan’s sister?”

“Oh, hello Hazel! What’s up?”

“I was just wondering what you think of that kid in our class, Ray. The one that sits in the back corner?”

There was a long pause in which Hazel checked to make sure that the call hadn’t been dropped. It was still going. Finally, on the other line “Sorry, who? Is there someone with that name in our class?”

Hazel suddenly found it hard to swallow. “Never mind, I must have gotten confused with someone from my community college. I think it’s time for a nap,” she lied, forcing a laugh. “Sorry to bother you, Rose; I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sure thing! Try not to push yourself, yeah?”

With a new goal in mind, Hazel walked into the building in front of her and took the elevator to her old floor. Walking straight up to the nurse’s station, she immediately saw who she was looking for; her former nurse. “Hey,” she greeted upon walking up to the station.

The nurse looked up. “Hey, Hazel! You look so nice today! I guess anything is better than a hospital gown though, huh?” she giggled. “What brings you here, forget something?”

“Um, I kind of need a favor…” Hazel said slowly, drawing it out. She had no idea whether this would work or not, but she had to try.

“Oh, something I can help with? I’ll definitely do my best. You’re the best patient I’ve had so far. And anyone that’s a fan of “RvB” is great in my book!” the nurse replied cheerfully.

“I just found out that an estranged family member of mine actually lived here in town, but recently had to go to the hospital. I heard that he might still be here, but no one at the front desk wanted to tell me. I guess they didn’t believe me,” Hazel lied, trying her best to sound sincere. “I’m getting worried that no one is telling me about his condition, and I just want to make sure if he’s alright.”

“Hmm, I’ll see what I can do, alright? But no guarantees. Okay, what’s his name?”

“Ray Narvaez.”

“That name does sound familiar, actually. He wasn’t on this floor, but I think one of the nurses two floors down from here mentioned a similar name. Hey, just write down your number, and I’ll call you if I find anything out, okay? Hopefully it will be good news!” she said cheerfully. Hazel scribbled down her number on a scratch piece of paper, internally regretting that she had to lie to get more information, but she told herself that it had to be done. She had to know. But she definitely knew the ward two floors down from her own; it was the ICU.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

When she got back to the apartment, Shan was in the living room doing homework with the TV on as background noise. When she heard Hazel come in, she looked up. Instead of asking where her sister had gone, she simply said “Dinner’s on the stove; I didn’t feel like cooking, so I hope you don’t mind pizza.” In fact, Hazel didn’t mind at all.

The younger Thomas grabbed a slice and wandered into the living room to sit next to her sister. “Sorry I left without saying anything,” she apologized. “Maybe I just got his name wrong.”

Shan flinched before focusing on the paper in front of her more intensely. “Don’t worry about it, Hazel. It was a lot to take in for your first day. I should have prepared you better for it; I’m the one who failed.” She didn’t reference the second half of their conversation. Hazel was slightly grateful for it. “Anyway, I’m sure Mark will be in school tomorrow, so he will be able to tell you the rest then. Maybe, I don’t know. Maybe things have changed now.”

Hazel looked at her sister and saw the most pained expression resting there. She didn’t bother asking what she meant this time, instead allowing it to go unnoticed as she focused her attention on the drone of the television.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

When the Thomas sisters made their way into class, they saw that Mark indeed was in class. He smiled when he saw the both of them approaching him. “Hey guys. Sorry I wasn’t here yesterday, I felt terrible about it. But I don’t think you guys would have enjoyed being near a sick person either,” he joked.

“It’s fine Mark. You’re always doing too much for this damn class. Take a break for once,” Shan scolded him lightly.

“Yes, mom,” he chuckled. “Hey Hazel, I hope you don’t mind if I take up some of your time during lunch; I wanted to talk to you about some things about the class…”

“Actually, about that, Mark…” Shan interjected, leaning in closer. “I have to tell you something before you do the whole class rules thing,”

Lindsay, who had been standing nearby, joined the trio. “Yeah, I think you should know something first…”

Hazel knew the drill this time, and walked away from the impromptu tactics meeting. Michael, Richard, and Sean were drifting toward the group too, sensing a subject of great importance was being discussed and needed their attention.  She didn’t know what to do with herself, so she went and sat alone in her seat. Everyone else was busy chatting each other up and didn’t seem to pay her any attention. Ray wasn’t in class yet; if he actually did belong to the class.

The brunette jumped a little when someone sat down in her sister’s usual seat and started talking to her. “Did you get the answers that you wanted yet?” It was Cry.

Smiling weakly, she replied, “No, it looks like that won’t happen for a while. I feel like I’ve done something wrong already.”

Cry smiled at her. “Don’t let them make you feel that way, yo. I think everything will work itself out.”

“I still haven’t figured out what you were trying to tell me yet,” she admitted, turning in her chair so that she was facing him.

“Of course not; it’s your second day. Just watch _everyone_ ; like, watch how _everyone_ treats… someone. Get it?” He leaned just a bit closer to her. “Keep watching, that’s all. You’ll figure it out, even if they don’t tell you. You look smart enough.”

“Thanks, Cry. I think…” Hazel giggled, making Cry chuckle along with her.

“Dammit, Cry, that’s my seat,” Shan said playfully, hands on her hips. “Stop flirting with my sister and go do homework or something! I’m worse than a strict parent when it comes to Hazel, I’ll have you know!”

“I’ll believe it when I see it, Ms. Thomas,” Cry replied, just as playful, but stood from the seat and wandered to his usual desk near Felix and Marzia.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

During lunch, Mark approached the sisters, an almost grim look covering his features, though he did his best to hide it. “Hey, I know that I promised to talk to you today Hazel, but I might have to postpone that for now. Sorry about that.”

Hazel sighed. “Story of my life. It’s fine Mark, some other time then.”

He seemed relieved. “Great. I promise we’ll talk, okay? For now I need to steal your sister for a bit.”

Shan immediately looked annoyed. “I don’t see what else we have to discuss, Mark. I swear we have a tactics meeting twice a day.”

“I can understand you’re frustrated, but this is important Shan. Especially in light of everything that we discussed this morning,” Mark said in a serious tone, all traces of his usual good-nature gone.

“Yeah, I know. Sorry, Mark,” she turned an apologetic glance to her sister. “Looks like you’ll have to eat without me. If you need extra money, my wallet is in my bag.”

Hazel laughed. “I have my own money, but thanks Shan. Save your money for when you get out of the meeting. I’m sure you’ll have time to run to a vending machine for a snack before class.”

Shan grumbled as she stood and followed Mark to the door where the rest of the tactics team was assembled, waiting to leave the room. Left alone again, Hazel stood and started wandering down the hallway again, where a few of her classmates were also walking around restlessly.

While walking she ran into Felix and Marzia, who seemed pleased to see her. “Hazel! We were just talking about you!” Marzia exclaimed with a good-natured laugh. “Cry doesn’t really talk to a lot of people, but he seems to enjoy talking to you.”

“I don’t blame him. I like you too. You seem really cool, so we wanted to invite you to this party we’re throwing later tonight,” Felix interjected.

“Well… I don’t know,” Hazel started.

“Aww, really? It will be tons of fun, and a great way to get to know everyone better!” Marzia persuaded. “I mean, if you don’t think you’ll be well enough to come, that’s fine, but after such a stressful start to the semester, you should take the chance to have fun. Think about it, ‘kay?”

“Alright, maybe I’ll go. It _does_ sound like fun.” Hazel replied with a smile.

“Great! Let me get your number so I can text you the location. Just come over whenever, leave whenever, wear whatever; it’s just a casual thing. At the very least, you can keep Cry company. He doesn’t usually mingle a whole lot unless he’s had a lot of alcohol,” Marzia babbled as she handed Hazel her phone for the number.

When Hazel returned the phone, she happened to be looking past Marzia’s shoulder and noticed something peculiar; people seemed to be shying away from a certain door. Looking closer, it seemed to be the library. Curious, Hazel excused herself and crept closer.

There was nothing out of the ordinary with the library… Then she saw who occupied the room and slipped inside. “Ray,” she said, her voice sounding too loud for the quiet atmosphere.

Ray chuckled as he looked up from where he was seated. “Hello again.”

Hazel sat down across from him. “How did I know you were a comic book person?” she sighed, noticing the stack of comics in front of him.

“Me and almost every other guy in existence,” he chuckled. “Anyway, I thought you weren’t going to talk to me anymore?”

“I never agreed to that,” Hazel quipped before adding “It looks like you’re not the most popular person in our class.”

With a quiet sigh, Ray settled his gaze back onto the printed page. “You can say that,” he admitted.

“Why is that? Nobody knows you.”

“Whoa there, Sherlock. Again with the questions,” Ray reprimanded. “You haven’t had that talk with your sister yet, have you?”

“I did, sort of.”

“And? What did you find out?”

Hazel rested her chin in her hand on the tabletop. “It’s what I didn’t find out that’s bothering me. I think knowing part of the truth is worse than not knowing it at all.”

“I see…”

Hazel jumped at a noise to their left, turning her head sharply, she made out a figure coming out of the shadows of the bookshelves. “Well, hello there. I don’t think that we’ve met,” the man said, blue eyes gleaming like ice. “I’m Geoff Ramsey, head librarian of the college.”

“I’m Hazel Thomas,” Hazel replied, starting to recover from her initial scare.

“Oh, I think I’ve met your sister. I guess being attracted to libraries is a family trait?” Geoff asked, raising a satirical eyebrow.

“Um… Sure?”

“Well, you’re always welcome in this library. I like to think of this place as a sanctuary of sorts, for all kinds of people.” Geoff paused at the edge of the table, not seeming to pay Ray any attention. “But the lunch break for KM is almost over, isn’t it? You might want to go get some food and then hurry to class. Trust me, you don’t want to sit through one of Ryan’s lectures on an empty stomach,” he chuckled.

Not knowing what to say, Hazel stood. “Yeah… sure.” She paced to the door and turned to look at them both. Ray had gone back to reading comics and Geoff still had his gaze fixed on her. She didn’t bother asking whether Ray was coming to class. “Well… Goodbye.”

Only one of them answered back. “Goodbye.”


	5. A Little Party (Never Killed Nobody)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

After another long and agonizing lecture, Hazel was informed that she would be left alone after class again. “Sorry, sis. Apparently two thirty minute meetings in one day wasn’t enough time for our team. We have another one straight after class, and I think this one might be a little lengthy.” Shan said with an apologetic frown.

“Is it about me? About what I told you, I mean…” Hazel said slowly. Shan sighed and nodded. “Great, so it is my fault.”

“Oh stop doing that! Don’t blame yourself for something that you didn’t even do! Anyway, I heard about a party going on later tonight, are you planning on going?” Shan asked, effectively changing the subject.

Hazel smiled at that. “Yeah, it sounds like fun. I really wanna go!”

“Yeah, I figured as much. Parties aren’t really my thing, of course, but for you I can make an exception.”

“You don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to, Shan.”

“Oh I know that! I just want to keep an eye on you, make sure that no one bothers my precious sister while I’m not around.”

“Shan…”

“Hey, if you don’t feel like waiting for me, you can take the keys and drive home yourself, okay? I can hitch a ride home with Lindsay and Michael.” Shan offered, holding out her keys to her younger sister.

“No, it’s fine. I think I’ll just take a bit of a walk around campus or something. Just call me when you get out of your meeting, okay?” Hazel insisted and then, raising her hand in parting, picked up her backpack and left the room.

While wandering mindlessly around campus, Hazel wondered briefly what had happened to Ray; he never returned to the classroom after she saw him in the library. As if on cue, she saw that strange dark-haired boy walking only a few yards ahead of her. She hesitated, wondering if she should pursue. Part of her said that she probably shouldn’t while the other half proclaimed that she had no choice. She set out with a resolute step, to try to reach him. There were a few obstacles between the two, a few groups of people, but she was confident that she could bypass them without issue.

Before she knew it, she had already followed him off-campus and onto the busy downtown streets, determined to keep an eye on him as she traversed the crowd. Then suddenly she lost sight of him; he must have turned the next corner. Almost sprinting now, she turned into the side street that she thought she lost sight of him in, and stood in confusion in the middle of the less populated sidewalk. He was gone, either he had ducked into a shop that she didn’t notice, or had simply vanished.

Looking at her surroundings, the only shop that really jumped out at her was a tiny painting and fine arts shop hiding amidst abandoned storefronts in the middle of the block. Hazel opened the door and took a tentative step in.

“Well, it’s certainly a creepy little shop, so it fits Ray perfectly, I guess…” Hazel muttered as she shuffled in. The room was dim and dusty, yet the paintings were vibrant and full of life in front of her. The first few were, anyway. The further back she looked, the more disturbed the paintings became. The younger Thomas swallowed audibly and was about to proceed further into the shop when a low but kind voice spoke from the left corner of the room.

Hazel jumped and whipped her head in that direction; there she saw a check-out register set up, being manned by an elderly Latina woman. At first she called out in Spanish, but when Hazel just stood there in confusion, she switched to English in a slight accent. “You are here to look around, honey?”

Hazel couldn’t help but smile at the older woman, she seemed really sweet. “Uh, yeah, just looking around!”

The woman nodded. “Okay, please take your time; you are our only customer today.”

Hazel smiled and thanked her before moving deeper into the room, examining paintings as she passed. Some of them were abstract, with random shapes and splashes of paint littered across the canvas; others were portraits of people, paintings of scenes and landscapes… Whoever the artist was seemed to like a versatile style of painting, or at the very least enjoyed experimenting with paint. As she noted earlier, she saw that as she walked, the colors of the paintings became darker, more muted than before. Some of the portraits now contained a person always hidden in the background, watching in secret while the main focus of the paintings, sometimes a group of people, sometimes a single person, stood unaware of the intrusion. The splashes and shapes on the abstract paintings became more furious and wild.

Hazel was so caught up in looking through the various arts around her that she almost forgot the reason she had come. The woman from the front called to her “There is a downstairs full of more paintings for you to look at, sweetie.”

“Thank you, I’ll go have a look!” Hazel called back. It was then that she noticed the staircase leading down. “Maybe Ray is down there…” Hazel said to herself, and moved forward.

In the basement, amongst more cobwebs and dust, were even more paintings than there were upstairs. Also down here were several small sculptures and other assorted art forms. Hazel almost could imagine that she were in an art museum instead of a store. She wondered if these were all by the same person.

Then her eyes fell upon a particular painting, where one man stood all alone, shrouded in pleasant and bright colors. Hazel gasped; the man looked an awful lot like Ray! She gaped at the piercing expression on the man’s face, almost as if he were staring through her.

“Huh, didn’t peg you as an art fan.” Hazel jumped as a sudden voice cut across the silence. Ray stepped from an obscured corner of the room, as if emerging from shadow. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I was just looking around!” Hazel stuttered, still half-surprised and not wanting to admit that she had followed him. “And what about you? Comic book lover and art critic, all in one?”

“Hey, why not? Comics can be considered artistic expression.” Ray countered, smiling. “Anyway, why here?”

“I um, just wandered in. There was nothing else that looked open on the block. I got curious,” Hazel responded with a little more composure than before. “Um, this painting…”

Ray walked closer to get a better look at the portrait in question and then frowned. “Yeah, kinda looks like me, doesn’t he? Is that what you were thinking?”

“Well, I did get confused for a second. Do you know the artist?” Hazel asked, looking at him curiously.

“Yeah, I do,” Ray responded distractedly, gazing at the painting. “But it’s not me. This was painted years ago, probably about twenty years back now. Maybe more than that.”

Hazel’s brow furrowed. “But it looks so much like you. Who is it, then?”

He turned from the painting to look at her and interjected “Are you sure you want to keep talking to me, like this? Not that any of that matters… I think it’s already too late to stop it.”

The conversation just grew more and more curious. She frowned up at the dark-haired boy. “I don’t know what you mean. Too late?” Her phone started to buzz and when she glanced at the message on it, she said “It’s my sister. I guess her meeting is over now.”

Ray smiled. “Sounds like you’d better get going, then. I’ll see you around, Hazel.” He reached out and to her surprise, adjusted a few strands of hair behind her ear.

“B-bye,” she stuttered, then hurried up the steps, texting her sister back to meet her at the car. She paused to say goodbye to the woman at the front. Something was bothering her in the back of her mind, and it wasn’t until she was back on campus that she realized what it was. The woman up front had said that she was the only customer there.

Had Ray somehow snuck past the woman? Or was it something else?

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

“So you’re sure you don’t mind coming with me?” Hazel asked for the third time as she and her sister pulled up to the address that Marzia had sent her.

“If I really didn’t want to be here, I would be dropping you off, wouldn’t I? A night out every now and then is a good thing,” Shan replied as she parked in the grass next to another car. “Wow, it’s crowded already! Those guys know how to party.”

“Yeah, I guess Marzia and Felix know a lot of people. They seem to be the popular type. Do you think they live here?” Hazel asked, wide-eyed as they regarded the building they were walking toward.

“Hmm. Could be a dorm building, but who knows, maybe they rented it out? It looks a little too swag for Kennewick College to have supplied.” Shan shrugged. “Anyway, listen. If the cops show up, drop your drink and run across the street. I’m not about to have you get busted for being underage.”

“I’ll be careful. I’m probably not gonna drink a lot anyway,” Hazel said as they walked in through the double doors.

The music was _loud_ , it had been muffled when they were standing outside, but now standing inside the building they were engulfed by sound waves, shaking the building, to the point that even the light fixtures above were vibrating dangerously. The large chandelier hanging just over the entrance jiggled around as if ready to fall.

“Dear god, my eardrums! Why?” Shan pouted, holding her hands over her ears.

“Well, that doesn’t look dangerous,” Hazel observed, motioning above them. “Let’s move into the actual building now, before that decides to fall on us or something.”

Upon entering the partygoer’s room, the sisters were greeted by the large group of Grumps. “Heeeey!” Arin and Danny cheered as they walked in.

“What are you guys, the official greeters?” Shan yelled teasingly as she and Hazel wandered over to the group.

“So what if we are?” Arin shot back. Suzy chuckled and rolled her eyes before lightly hitting her boyfriend on the shoulder. “Ow, I’m being abused!” he fake-whined.

“Hey, you brought your sister! Hi Hazel,” Suzy added, greeting her with a tiny wave.

“Looks like everyone else beat us here!” Hazel laughed. She still didn’t really know where she fit in as regards to the class, but she wanted to make an effort to get to know as many people as possible. This party was her first chance.

“Yeah we were probably some of the first ones here. The place filled up pretty quickly, to be honest,” Suzy replied.

Over the loud music and chatter of the room the sisters heard a shout of “HEY BROS!” before turning around to see none other than Felix and Marzia themselves. “Glad you guys could make it!”

“Just so you know, drinks and snacks are at the tables over there, and there’s a bathroom three doors down the hall,” Marzia interjected. Winking at Hazel, she added “I think that Cry got here not too long ago, too. Why don’t you go find him?”

Hazel felt her face heat up at the implication, and before she could make and excuse, Shan nudged her with an arm. “Yeah, go on, make friends! I’ll be around in case anything goes down,”

“Gee, thanks sis,” Hazel sighed before excusing herself from everyone to walk around. She had every intention of finding Cry eventually (he was the only one that seemed willing to tell her anything so far) but first wanted to survey the rest of the party and get a feel for the people in attendance.

With that thought in mind, she made her way to the snacks table, grabbed a drink and started sipping from it idly as she glanced around. The room was packed with unfamiliar faces, so the invite wasn’t exclusive to their class only.

She finally spotted Lindsay and Michael talking to Gavin in one of the corners of the room. Besides Cry, Lindsay was the only person that actually seemed to go out of her way to be friendly to Hazel, so she naturally found herself gravitating to the redhead. “Hazel!” Lindsay cried, then reached out to give the younger Thomas a hug. “I’m glad you’re here, it’s good to get out and get to know people!”

“Please tell me that you left your crazy sister at home,” Michael said, though more in jest than seriousness. Gavin laughed along with his friend.

“Nope, she’s here. I’m sure she’ll find you guys to bother you eventually,” Hazel assured him.

“Oh just great,” Michael sighed before going back to his conversation with Gavin, telling the Brit to shut up when he teased that Michael probably secretly enjoyed the attention.

Hazel stood next to Lindsay for some time as they chatted about the class, soon moving to more general topics such as hobbies and interests. Their conversation eventually went to discussing fellow classmates, seeing as Hazel was genuinely curious of what Lindsay thought of everyone, and Lindsay was just as happy to speak as she was to listen.

Mark had joined Michael and Gavin while they were talking, thus turning the girls’ attention to him specifically. “I’ve never seen Mark be so social and so silly; he’s always so solemn in class,” Hazel observed as they watched the crowd of people around Mark growing. He seemed to be the life of the party at the moment.

Lindsay laughed. “Yeah, if you only know him in class, he seems that way. He takes his duty as head of the tactics team seriously. I think he’s the only person I’ve ever heard of in the history of our class, to actually volunteer for the position. Most of the time, it’s forced on people.”

Hazel frowned. “Is being leader of tactics really that bad?”

“I would imagine so, after all the lives of everyone in the class is in their hands…” Lindsay covered her mouth with a frightened giggle. “I must have had too much to drink; I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

By now used to hearing half-truths and not being told any more, Hazel said “Don’t worry Lindsay, I didn’t hear anything you weren’t supposed to say.” She had to trust that eventually everything would be revealed to her; whether by learning it from Cry or Ray or someone else, it didn’t matter.

Speaking of Mark though, he had undoubtedly spotted the younger Thomas and smiled brightly, starting to move their way. “Hey, great to see you outside of class for once!” Mark exclaimed.

“Great to see you actually smiling for once,” Hazel quipped with a smirk.

Mark shook his head, unabashed. “Hey, I smile all the time! I’m far too handsome not too!” Hazel laughed, not because Mark wasn’t handsome (he really was) but because he was obviously kidding. His own laugh was contagious, and soon people nearby were laughing without really knowing why.

After another few minutes of playful banter between the two, Hazel realized that Lindsay and the others had moved on into the room, leaving just her and Mark. “Looks like your adoring fans left you,” Hazel teased.

Mark shrugged. “I guess I was too busy talking to you to notice.” Not knowing what to say in reply, Hazel took a long sip of her drink to avoid answering. “Anyway, what is up with Shan? She’s just been hanging on the wall in the hallway, texting since you guys got here. I guess she’s not really the socializing type?” Mark asked to keep the conversation going.

“Has she? Doesn’t surprise me; she doesn’t usually like talking to people she doesn’t know. She gets anxiety in big crowds like this, I think,” Hazel admitted. “I was surprised that she wanted to come with me. I thought maybe there was someone here that she wanted to talk to.”

“Doesn’t seem like it. The only people she really interacts with are me, Michael and Lindsay. And Ryan too, I guess. Everyone else she only talks to on a professional basis.”

“Yeah, that sounds like my sister, all right. She usually gets really close to a small group of people. Do you have any really good friends in class so far?” Hazel asked, openly curious.       

“Hmm, hard to say. Bob and Wade, probably. We’re all from Cincinnati so I guess we tend to have similar interests, strangely enough. I don’t if that has anything to do with our being from the same town, or what,” Mark laughed. “I hang out with Sean and Aaron a lot, too. The Grumps are pretty cool.”

“I get it, you’re friends with everyone!” Hazel sighed, envious.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m friends with everyone, but I like everyone well enough,” Mark corrected. “I like being around a lot of people, it almost feels like a family…”

Sensing a shift in the conversation, Hazel changed the subject. “Maybe because you’re a natural leader. It certainly seems that way.” Then hesitating, Hazel added “I heard you actually volunteered to be tactics leader.”

Mark frowned. “Yeah, I did. I mean, I guess I couldn’t find an excuse not to. When I decided to start attending Kennewick, I did a lot of research on the school. It took a lot of digging, but I found out about a lot of the lore of the place. I knew… well, probably more than most people did on their first day here. With that kind of knowledge, I felt like I needed to take the responsibility for it.”

“Ahh, are we talking about the mysterious curse that I still know nothing about because no one will tell me about it?” Hazel sounded bitterer than she intended, making her feel a bit sorry for it.

Mark flinched. “Yeah, I figured you weren’t happy with me because of that. I’m sorry,” he sounded genuinely apologetic, “if circumstances were different, there wouldn’t be any problem. But as of right now, we are (the tactics team, that is) working out a few issues first. I’m sorry; I really wish I could tell you more.” He stared down at the drink in his hands contemplatively.

“Looks like solemn Mark makes a return,” Hazel thought to herself. Out loud, she said “I won’t question you about it; if it’s that important for me to not know, I won’t ask. Shan and I got into a fight about it the other day.”

Mark grimaced. “Yeah, I heard about that. Speaking of your sister,” he took a deep breathe, “I heard that she was supposed to have attended here before?”

Hazel blinked in confusion. “Yeah, that’s true. I was telling Michael and Lindsay about it. She got sick on the weekend of her orientation, and they didn’t have another make up day for her, so she missed enrollment. All that over a weekend virus.”

“You’re sure it was a virus, and not something more serious?” Mark pressed.

The younger Thomas was confused by this line of questioning, as well as becoming inexplicably defensive. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure. I think they said that it was a virus, or the stomach flu. Something that was going around. I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention, and they weren’t too specific about it either. I was just worried about my sister!” her voice was starting to elevate, not loud enough to overcome the music, but loud enough to warn Mark not to ask any more questions if he wasn’t willing to answer a few of her own.   

Mark took the hint. “I’m really sorry about all of this. I wasn’t trying to make you mad… it’s just my job, as head of tactics, to know these things.” When Hazel didn’t say anything, he turned to look at her. “It looks like we’re always on the wrong side of things. I want to make it up to you, somehow. Just say the word, and I’ll try to make it happen.”

Hazel was surprised at his earnestness, and stuttered “Uh, sushi?” Then her face turned red; of all the things she could have said, instead of turning the offer down, the first thing that came to mind was food? She thought she couldn’t be more pathetic.

To her surprise, he smiled. “We can do that, sure. We’ll go to the sushi restaurant that I work at part time!”

“I can be expensive,” she warned in an embarrassed tone.

“I’m pretty sure I can work a deal with the owner; they love me over there.”

And before Hazel could come up with some other sort of excuse, the sound of an uproar just outside the room rose up over the music. “What the hell is that all about?” Hazel asked, eyebrows furrowing.

She and Mark moved closer to the source of the disturbance. Mark sighed when he saw a crowd gathering and heard an angry British squawk. “Sounds like Gavin and Felix are at it again.”

“They don’t like each other?”

“That has to be the understatement of the century. They go out of their way to avoid each other. I was surprised that they invited Gavin at all, but I guess they wanted to try and be nice? I don’t know why Marzia bothered, those two just can’t stand each other.” Mark explained as Felix started speaking rapidly in Swedish at the Brit in front of him.

“Oh don’t start that Swedish bullshit with me! Speak English, you mong!”

“Yeah, go on and insult the person who’s throwing the party, real smart. Damn, why did we even _invite_ you? I would rather have invited the _invisible_ over you any damn day!”

“Why didn’ you invite ‘im, then? The curse is bullshit anyway!”

“For once we fuckin’ agree!”

“I’m sorry Hazel, I have to break this up before there’s a fight,” Mark apologized, making his way through the crowd to the feuding foreigners.  

Hazel watched in amazement as Mark boldly stood between the two, hands raised in warning. She jumped when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned, expecting Shan. “Cry!” she exclaimed.

“Hey, Hazel! Did you just get here?” Cry greeted with a grin, pulling her in for a hug.

She returned the hug and then gave a sheepish grin as they parted. “I wish I could say yes, but actually I’ve been here for at least half an hour. I didn’t get a chance to look for you.”

Cry waved one hand dismissively, the other being occupied by holding his drink. “Don’t worry about, the important thing is that I found you.” 

She shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.” Then looking down at the empty cup in her hands, “I need another drink, come with me.”

After getting a refill and settling in a quiet corner, Hazel asked “So what have you been up to anyway? Marzia told me you weren’t much of a socializer.”

“True. I was just sitting here, people-watching. I think it’s more fun than actually trying to talk to everyone. You find out so much about people just by seeing how they act, no verbalage necessary.”

Hazel laughed. “Is verbalage a word? Anyway, I guess I was kind of doing the same at first. And according to Mark, my sister has attached herself to a wall and her phone, and hasn’t made an attempt to move yet.”

Cry took another sip of his own drink and said “Have you heard any more about the curse?”                                                                                                      

Hazel laughed. “Yes and no. Just more cryptic hints and no actual fact. If you can call a stupid curse factual.”

Cry leaned in a little closer to her, so his voice would be clearer over the song currently playing. “I’ll tell you what I know. I think it’s about time you heard the whole story.” Hazel urged him on until he spoke. “Okay, listen. I don’t know how much you were able to find out, but here’s what I know. The first year that they started up Kennewick Miscellaneous as a class, there was a student that got killed. I never found out how. But after the funeral, some of the student’s friends refused to accept the death. I think they tried to bring their friend back using dark magic or something, but something went wrong. Other people in the class started to pretend that they could still see the dead student, so that they could appease the grieving friends. Then the rest of the school got involved. By the end of the year, it was almost like the student never died at all.”

There was a pause in the story that made Hazel press him further. “And that’s it? Where does the curse come in? What is it?”

“Well, at the end of the year, they took a class photo for the yearbook, you know, as it was a tradition here at Kennewick. They even left a little gap in the KM class for the _invisible_ student. When they printed out the yearbook however, they saw what can only be described as an anomaly. Because standing there, in the empty space left for the student, _someone was there_. It was a broken, unclear image, but unmistakably the countenance of the one who had died. The curse began the next year.”

“Here are the basics of the curse. Every year, in our class, Kennewick Miscellaneous, they put in the spillover students who have paid the school’s fees but can’t fit into any of the desired classes due to classes being full. And every year, they have a set limit for the class. About a week before the class starts, the records for the upcoming class actually change. There always seems to be an extra student in the class, but no one ever knows who it is. And that is the curse. Every year, there is an extra student in the class, and the reason that no one knows who it is, is because the records are physically changed. Memories are altered, to make the dead student fit in with the living. Did I leave that part out? The extra student is _dead_.”

“And for whatever reason, because there is an extra student in the class who should not physically be able to be there at all, deaths start to occur. At least one death a month, involving either the students of the class or their close family members, starts to occur. This is why our class needs a tactics team. It’s their duty in the class to try to keep the students alive and out of harm’s way. It’s a stressful job, and most of the responsibility rests on the shoulders of the team leader. In our case, that’s Mark. I don’t know how he copes with it.”

“There are countless theories as to why this curse occurs, and there are new theories every year. The reason I think that KM is cursed? I think it’s because of the friends of the deceased student. I think that the rumor about them trying to bring their friend back using dark magic is true, except they didn’t know what the hell they were doing. They opened some kind of rift probably, one that allows a dead person associated with KM’s past to come back and live again, if only for that year. And the deaths occur as a way to try to rectify that person’s being alive; the world is trying to push that person back into the rift. Again, this is just what I think; I don’t know if it’s true or not.”

Cry paused to see how Hazel was taking all this new information. She was staring at her friend with wide eyes, the drink in her hand shaking slightly. She had always been bad with horror and ghost stories, and this was so much worse. This was real.

“You called the student an invisible earlier. I heard Felix say the same thing not too long ago; he was fighting with Gavin and he said he should have invited the _invisible_ instead. What… what did he mean?”

Cry nodded. “I’m glad you thought of that. You heard right. There’s a little more to the story, regarding our year. This year, we had a first. Someone actually volunteered to be the tactics team leader. Mark had already talked about possible strategies to combat the deaths, with a former leader of the tactics team from years ago. This year, we decided-”           

Before he could finish that sentence, they heard another uproar near the entrance of the building. The music abruptly turned off as a loud crashing sound, followed by pained and terrified shouts, filled the air. Cry turned pale as he jumped up. “That sounded like Felix.” He had already run off before Hazel could even stand to follow. But follow she did, right out to the entrance that she and Shan had walked through earlier. What she saw made her sick.

The grand chandelier that she had pointed out to Shan earlier had indeed fallen, causing a dark shadow in the main entrance due to the electrical wiring being ripped from the ceiling and crashing to the floor. What’s more there was somebody being crushed under it.

Felix was the poor soul currently lying under the enormous shattered light fixture. All you could see of him from the top was just above his shoulders, and from the back only his calves downward. There was a preposterous amount of blood splattered on the walls, the floor, nearby people flailing helplessly to fling it off. He coughed hard, unable to speak from the shock, reaching out his only free hand, grasping in the dark.

Marzia was there in front of him, crying out in a mix of English and Italian. Cry had just arrived too, and was kneeling to the right of his best friend, stunned to silence. Gavin and Michael stood in the front of the crowd, gaping in horror at their fellow classmate. Hazel didn’t see Shan or Mark anywhere, but decided that she had to do something, if she could. If she could only get through the crowd to them…

Felix was speaking in a weak tone, speaking rapidly in Swedish, with both Marzia and Cry trying to silence him. “Marzia…”

“ _Silenzio, il mio amore_ … Don’t speak, we’re going to get help, just please,” Marzia pleaded, voice cracking and countless tears running down her face.

Cry called to the crowd that was gathering. “Somebody call a fucking ambulance, the man needs help!” His voice was hoarse, like he too would start crying any minute.

Mark proceeded from the crowd with speed and efficiency. He pointed at Michael. “Call an ambulance, man, and find Sean and Richard. We’re gonna need some manpower to lift this off of him.”

“Yeah, sure man, I’m on it but… Should we really move anything right now?” Michael asked as he got his phone out. “It might hurt him more.”

“We have to do something, Michael. I don’t know what else. Go find the others,” Mark said sadly, now kneeling next to Marzia, who was inconsolable.

Hazel’s eyes connected with Cry’s at that moment, and he looked so helpless that her heart ached. She stepped forward to move closer to him, only to be harshly yanked back by the arm. Shan was at her side, a mixture of terror and calculation on her face. “Come on, we have to leave.” Sean and Richard finally arrived, right behind Michael, and they shifted around the sisters as they passed. All three gave the duo particular looks as they passed.

“But Felix is hurt, we have to do something!” Hazel insisted. It was then that she noticed that some people, the people from her class were looking back and forth between herself and Felix. Why were they…?

“Hazel, we just can’t right now, okay? We gotta leave, before something else goes wrong.

“Shan, no. _This_ is wrong, walking out on a friend that needs you, is wrong. We can’t leave him.”

“Hazel. I’m not asking you. I’m telling you that we are leaving,” her sister ground out through clenched teeth. “Don’t ask right now. We need to go.”

“But…”

“Please.” Mark had joined them, and was standing close to the two of them. “We’ll do our best here, Hazel, but we need less of a crowd. We’re gonna send everyone out. Please go home, be safe?” He looked at her, almost pleading with her. She hadn’t realized that he seemed to care that much.

She nodded, allowing herself to finally be pulled along by her sister as they made their way out of the dorm, as quickly and silently as they could manage. Hazel still felt the cold stares of her classmates on the back of her neck as she left.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

The next day, as the sisters entered the classroom, everyone was sitting quietly at their desks, the usual chatter of their morning classes gone. Felix and Marzia’s seats were empty. As Hazel walked to her desk, she felt more stares on her back. Turning to look at everyone, she was surprised to see that she hadn’t imagined the feeling; everyone was looking at her. As if it had been her fault somehow. As if they were judging her.

She heard Shan make a loud noise with her throat before saying in a too-loud voice for the gloomy occasion, “Well, what the hell are you all looking at? Do some fucking homework or I swear to God…”

Mark walked in behind them, also noticing the stares of their classmates. As he passed Hazel’s desk, she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder, and then he passed her to stand at the front of the room. In a more subdued tone than Shan had used, but no less firm, he spoke. “Last night, something terrible happened, something that we all know about. Last night, we lost a classmate and a great friend. Felix will be dearly missed by all of us. He really livened up a room, didn’t he? I spoke with Marzia this morning, and at the moment she wishes to be left to herself, so no phone calls or flowers or cards right now. Just keep her in your thoughts. When she is ready to reach out to us again, we will be here for her, as we will always be here for each other.” He paused, then emphasized his words. “Everyone understands that, right? We are all here for each other, _every one of us_. Everyone. So don’t be afraid to grieve, and keep in mind that everyone does so in a different way. Let’s try to be patient with each other, alright?”

Mark looked around the room, having everyone’s attention now. Out of the corner of her eye, though she didn’t dare turn to look, she saw a thin, dark-haired boy pass through the back row to the far corner of the room. Ray. But Hazel didn’t dare look, was for some reason ashamed, or maybe afraid to do so. Cry was also walking in, sniffling every now and then. Hazel did turn to look at him, but received no eye contact. He sat in his seat, slightly hunched over as if protecting himself from everyone around him.

By that time, Mark had left the front of the room and met with the rest of the tactics team. Shan was already there, having left after snarling at the class to do homework. Hazel was afraid to look up at everyone, feeling somehow guilty without knowing why. Ryan walked in without his usual hustle, almost in silent mourning himself. So he knew. Someone had told him before class.

He walked up to the front of the room and said in a quiet voice. “Everyone knows what’s happened already, I’m sure. Due to the circumstances of this class, I will allow everyone a free day to grieve on their own time, but please feel free to stick around and comfort each other, if that works better for you. I know sometimes, it worked for me, when I was in your place. No lecture today.”

After Ryan finished, Cry practically bolted from the room like a frightened mare, earning a sympathetic glance from their teacher before he approached the tactics team. Hazel knew without a doubt that Shan would be here with her team for a long time probably, so she looked around for someone to talk to, maybe someone to comfort. It looked like everyone was shying away from her. Which hurt, a lot. With Lindsay and Shantel in a tactics meeting, and Cry having left so suddenly, there was no one she felt truly comfortable opening up to. In short, she needed a sanctuary.

So she packed up and went to the library.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      


	6. Aftershock

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

Upon entering the library, she found a table in a deserted corner of the library (though it wasn’t so crowded to begin with) and sat down. Once settled, she was approached by the librarian. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that he looked familiar to her all of the sudden; not only because she had met him just a few days ago, but because she had seen him somewhere else before… “Ah, another student from the KM class. A classmate of yours just ran in here not too long before you. He… didn’t look well.” Hazel cringed; she had found Cry’s hiding spot without meaning too.

Mr. Ramsey wore a sympathetic look as he looked down at her. “I heard about what happened. It has finally started, and a little later than usual too… You should be careful from here on out, got it? Everyone is at risk now.”

Hazel blinked at him in confusion. “What…?”

His blue eyes widened. “Oh, shit that’s right; you’re the one, I forgot.” Then he sighed. “If I were Mark, I would have explained everything to you by now. But that particular lot doesn’t fall to me anymore. I hope that Mark knows what he’s doing.”

As if on cue, the very person they were speaking of came into view, having used a back entrance to the library. He looked surprised to see Hazel there. Distracted, he said “Oh… Hazel,” his eyes softened upon glancing at her, “how are you feeling? I mean, considering the circumstances… Everyone is in low spirits, but I’m glad to see that you’re still fighting to stay in a good mood. I mean,” he seemed suddenly uncomfortable, as if he didn’t know how to proceed.

Hazel tilted her head slightly. “Is the meeting done already? I expected it to be longer today.”

Mark nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Um, no, everyone is waiting for me to return, I just had an errand to run. Um…” He turned to Geoff in a state of self-consciousness. “I, er… I wanted to talk to you about…”

Geoff nodded in silent understanding. “I understand. Please, come to the back with me. We can talk there.”

Mark nodded, all gratitude. Geoff tipped his head in a simple farewell to Hazel and started walking to the back of the library. Mark followed, throwing a small, encouraging smile Hazel’s way as he did.

She sighed, alone again. She knew better than to look for Cry, knowing full well that he must have wanted to be alone right now. And as much as she wanted to comfort him right now, she had no idea what she could even say, nor could she shake the feeling that he might somehow blame her for the death. It didn’t make any sense, but from all that she could see so far, just about everyone in the class seemed to hold her accountable, but she had no idea why. She had been nowhere near Felix during the incident; Cry knew that. Maybe no one else did, but he did and yet… Why?

She couldn’t find a satisfactory answer to that question. She silently gazed around the library, half-expecting Ray to show up any moment, in search of his own sanctuary. Maybe Ray could tell her what was going on. Maybe Ray could explain why everyone in class gave her strange side-glances, and maybe he could explain their strange behavior toward himself as well. But Ray never came into the library, and so Hazel never got her answers.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

It was a lonely week for Hazel. Shan and Lindsay continued to be occupied by the ever-increasing meetings that they were required to attend, and Cry hadn’t so much as looked her way since the incident. She got the feeling that he was going out of his way to avoid her. Not that she had any proof or could think of a valid reason why, but she just had a feeling.

And no matter how hard she tried to get close enough to talk to Ray, that never happened either. It was like her was avoiding her as well. It seemed like the new game of the entire class was to avoid her, and she had been the only one not let in on the secret.

Throughout the week, the only person that really didn’t seem cold to her (besides her sister, of course, although she had gone back to being as secretive as ever) was Mark. At any opportunity he could find, he would come sit with her briefly to talk or ask if she needed help with her work. Almost like he was apologizing for everyone else’s behavior, and this was the best that he could do at present.

Marzia came back at the end of the week. Her manner toward everyone was chilling, but especially toward Hazel She could sometimes hear the grieving girl mutter “How could it be true? We never thought…” and “Why him?” through her sniffles.

At one point, feeling extremely sorry for her loss, Hazel approached Marzia and offered assistance in any way; whatever she felt that she needed, Hazel would provide. Someone to vent to and listen, someone to help with homework, anything really, Hazel was up for anything.

The look that she received after the offer was nothing short of venomous. Though Marzia quickly recovered herself enough to mumble, “No, no. There is nothing that anyone can do for me now.” And then, after an uncomfortably long pause, “But thank you, I know you mean well. But please, no.”

Hazel slunk back to her seat, feeling even more horrible, wondering what on earth she had done to earn everyone’s disapproval. Shan had seen what happened, and was rising from her seat with a look of anger, but before she could get up and start a fight with Marzia, (and before Hazel could do anything to stop her) Mark appeared as if sensing the tension. He murmured in a low voice to Shan, perhaps commanding her to sit. She did so, although begrudgingly. Then, with a kind smile and a nod to Hazel, he walked back to his seat as Ryan started up another lecture.

Ray was not in his seat on that day; he had hardly been in school all week, in fact. Hazel didn’t know what to make of any of it.

That same day, as Hazel and her sister walked through the parking lot to the car, the younger sibling’s phone began to buzz. Shan turned her head to look at Hazel, curious. Feeling just as confused, Hazel glanced at her phone; it wasn’t a number that she recognized. She put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

The voice at the other could hardly be heard at first, for all the static on the line. Then, just barely heard above the roar, “Hazel? Can you hear me?”

“Oh, Nurse Anderson!” Hazel exclaimed, relief washing over her. “How are you?”

“I’m doing well, and I hope you’re doing the same. Listen, do you remember what you asked me about the last time you were here, about your family friend?” Hazel swallowed hard, ignoring her sister’s questioning look and walking forward a step.

“Yes.”

“Well, I found out that we _did_ have a patient by the name of Ray Narvaez. He was in the ICU around the same time that you were staying at the hospital,” the nurse paused, as if thinking how best to proceed.

Hazel felt her heart begin to speed up at her tone. “What do you mean, you did have a patient? Is he well now, and out of the hospital?”

“No, no he isn’t. Hazel, I’m sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this, but Mr. Narvaez passed away while in our care. It happened a little before you were released from the hospital. Again, I’m very sorry… Perhaps his family was too busy grieving to let you know right away? I don’t know why else they wouldn’t have told your family themselves.”

Hazel’s throat ran dry, and she struggled to take in a breath. “Hazel? You okay, what is it?” Shan asked, seeming more worried than usual.

“Hazel, are you still there?” Nurse Anderson asked, though the static was picking up again.

“Yes. I’m sorry, it’s just so sudden, and it is a lot to take in.”

“I imagine so. I’m so sorry, again. I hope that you and your family can take comfort in the fact that he’s not suffering.”

Hazel thanked her nurse and hung up the phone. She let her hand drop to her side, where it hung lifeless. “Hazel, what happened? Is everything okay, who was that?” Shan asked, a hint of worry and fear in her tone.

“Everything is fine,” Hazel lied. She saw her sister about to protest and beat her to it. “You know how you’ve been keeping secrets? Sorry, I have to do the same this time. At least for now, until I… until I figure it out.”

Shan looked ready to protest, then stopped herself. “Okay. It’s only fair, I guess. As long as nothing bad has happened to anyone. It wasn’t mom? Or dad?” Hazel shook her head, earning a look of relief. “Good.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Things seemed to be returning to normal for Hazel during the second week following Felix’s death. For one thing, people stopped acting as if she were something to be feared. On that Monday, people started to greet her again. As soon as she walked into the room behind Shan, Suzy walked up to her with an earnest expression on her face. “Hazel!” she cried out.

Hazel couldn’t hide the surprise overtaking her features. She was starting to get used to the whole being ignored thing, so it almost felt bizarre to be addressed so openly. “Suzy, hey,” she replied slowly, wondering about the change of heart.

Suzy noticed her hesitation and frowned. “I uh, hope you’re doing okay after what happened, you know. I didn’t get a chance to talk to you last week. I guess I was lost in my own thoughts.” Hazel didn’t buy it for a second, but she wouldn’t ignore this sudden reconciliation; in fact, it felt like she had to accept it and pretend that everyone hadn’t treated her like a plague victim, if only for the sake of human interaction.

“Don’t worry about it,” Hazel said somewhat dismissively. “You weren’t the only one. Everyone was lost in thought last week, I guess. Its fine, I was too.” After all, they had lost a classmate, of course everyone would be distant. It made sense, right?

Although Felix was still a heavy topic of conversation, and his loss was strongly felt, people muttered to each other about the “unfortunate accident” more freely instead of in hushed whispers like before. But they said the word “accident” with forced vigor, as if they were all trying to convince themselves that it was so. Hazel wondered if they suspected foul play. Regardless, she was happy to be able to converse freely with everyone again, not sure what to make of everyone’s behavior the previous week. She tried not to think about it.

The tactics meetings were shorter and less frequent again, like they had been before, so Hazel wasn’t forced to wait around campus for her sister as long. Still, there was another team meeting after class, as there was every Monday, so Hazel walked to the library as she had every day since last week. The library really was just like a private sanctuary; it was quiet and almost entirely deserted, making it the perfect place for her to finish homework or read or do anything else she could think up to occupy her time while she waited.

Usually whilst in the library, she was left alone to do her homework. She didn’t often bother trying to talk with Mr. Ramsey while at her usual table. There was an understood silence, the only noises in the library were her pencil scribbling across the surface of her papers and the slow shuffle of his shoes as he wandered up and down the rows, sliding books back into their proper place. Today, she looked up from her work and watched as he struggled with a larger load of books than usual. Feeling an urge to make herself useful, she stood, leaving her belongings where they were, and approached him.

“Need any help?” Hazel smiled when Mr. Ramsey turned his head to look at her, still balancing as many books as possible in his arms precariously. He nodded once for his assent, then handed half the books over to her.

He sighed, relieved. “Thanks, it was getting a bit uncomfortable, holding that many books at once.”

“No problem,” she replied, walking down the rows of bookshelves with him to help put away books. “Don’t you have anyone to help you with this, like an assistant?”

“No. Hardly anyone ever uses this library, anyway. It’s more of an auxiliary library, used specifically for this building. The actual campus library is much larger than this, they need much more help than I do.” Geoff said casually as they walked.

“Oh really? I didn’t know there was another library. Guess I should explore the campus again.”

There was a short pause before Geoff said “So how are you enjoying Kennewick College so far? Kennewick Miscellaneous definitely has a varied classroom experience.”

Hazel shrugged with a noncommittal smile. “Yeah… It’s okay. I mean, Ryan has to cater to so many different types of majors that he’s literally all over the place with his lessons. Sometimes it’s a little confusing, but I have my sister to help me.”

Geoff laughed. “Sounds about right. KM is notorious for being a compilation of lessons that are pretty much useless to half the class. Eh, it happens when you have twenty to thirty students with different class requirements in one classroom. Wasn’t their brightest idea.” Having just finished putting away the books in his pile, he turned to take the remaining ones from her grasp. “But other than the randomness, how do you like the class?”

Hazel frowned. “Well, everyone seems a bit on edge. I mean, we’re all still grieving over Felix, of course, but it’s more than that, I think. It feels… different, like everyone is less sad and more tense. But maybe I’m imagining it.”

“Hmm…” Geoff nodded. “That doesn’t surprise me either. I’m sorry that it’s so uncomfortable for you right now. Hopefully that will change. Anyway, just remember that this library is a sanctuary… for anyone. Keep it in mind, okay?”

Hazel didn’t know how to respond. It seemed like even the librarian knew more than he was letting on! “You seem to know a lot about KM. I guess you’ve worked here for a while, huh?”

“Yeah, you could say that. I’ve worked in this library for about twelve years now. I came to work here almost immediately after being in that class myself.”

Hazel perked up in interest, though she tried to hide her immediate curiosity. “Oh, you used to be a KM student?”

“Uh huh. Ryan and I were classmates, actually. Fifteen year ago, now. I never thought that we would both end up back here,” he commented in a wistful tone, staring reflectively at the row of books in front of him. His eyes glazed over, as if his mind was somewhere much further away. Snapping back to attention, he turned a kind eye to the younger Thomas. “Anyway, I won’t bore you with tiresome reminiscences. You should get back to your homework.”

Hazel nodded, sensing that there was a topic he was avoiding there, but backed down nonetheless; there was no point in trying to force him to talk now. Besides, she really should get her homework done…

When she walked back to her usual seat, she noticed that someone was sitting in her seat. Upon moving closer, she discerned who it was; Cry! “Hey,” she said as she walked up to the table. Cry looked up from the book he was reading and smiled weakly.

“Hey.” He shifted in his seat. “Is this your stuff?” Hazel nodded, and Cry chuckled to himself. “I thought so, but I wasn’t sure. I sat down so no one could nab it while you were gone. And besides, I wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh, did you?” Hazel asked, though it came out harsher than she had first intended.

Cry winced. “Listen, I’m sorry. If it seemed like I was avoiding you, well… I guess that I was.” He put down his book. “I have no excuse, I just didn’t know what to say. After Felix, you know… Everyone was freaked out about it. It looks like the deaths have already started.”

Hazel sat down next to her friend. “Yeah, I guess I didn’t think about it before, but you were telling me that because of the class curse, people die, right? I forgot, but I guess that must be why everyone is so afraid. But it almost seems like there’s more to it… It’s like everyone was avoiding me, specifically.” She looked up at Cry expectantly, waiting for him to explain it away or assure her that it isn’t true.

Cry sighed to himself. “You noticed.” He just looked at her for a minute, contemplative. Finally, he said “It’s not in your head, they were. I wish I could say more, but… Look, I know it sounds really dumb, but I feel like part of the reason that the deaths started was because I broke one of the class rules. I told you things that only the tactics leader should have been telling you. I can’t help but think that,” his eyes started to mist over with tears, “my best friend might have died because of me. It had to be my fault. And I’m sorry that I took it out on you.” He stopped talking in an attempt to regain control over his voice.

Hazel gazed with sympathy at her friend, the only one brave enough to defy the rules and talk to her about the curse when no one else would, and now he was suffering for it. “It wasn’t your fault, Cry. It might have been just an accident; has no one thought that was possible? And if it really was the curse, then it was my fault for soliciting you to tell me. It wasn’t your fault.” When Cry sighed again, Hazel asked in a quiet voice “You aren’t going to finish telling me, are you? You started telling me about how we were guarding against the curse, but you can’t finish that conversation now.”

Cry shook his head. “No. I can’t, I’m sorry. I know it’s really stupid, but I don’t want to take any chances now. I think a lot of people in our class are starting to believe now. I hope that Mark gets to finally talk to you soon, so you don’t have to be in the dark for much longer.”

Hazel started to shrug it off, but then the conversation started to remind her of something that Cry had said to her before; one of their earlier conversations. “You told me once to watch how everyone treats someone, and if I watched closely enough, that I-”

Cry interrupted by saying “I can’t say any more about it, Hazel. Believe me that I would if I could. I can’t risk it anymore.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Hazel found herself standing in front of the tiny fine arts shop from before. The tactics meeting was long over, but Shan insisted that she had to stay behind for some obscure reason (she had said she was asking Ryan for help with some homework, and didn’t say much more) and it would be a bit longer before they left the campus for the day. After finishing her homework with Cry, she found herself walking automatically down the same path she had once before.

Taking a hesitant step in, she found herself being greeted by the same woman as before. “Back again, sweetheart? How are you today?”

Hazel smiled and greeted the woman back politely before continuing her perusal of the art as she had done before. It wasn’t until she was passing the dark portraits and heading down the steps, looking around intently, that she realized that she was looking for Ray. She was almost not surprised when she saw him in the basement again, gazing at what seemed like a new painting in the room (at the least, she hadn’t noticed it the last time). “Ray?” she asked hesitantly, descending the final few steps.

Ray didn’t bother turning around. “Hazel,” he replied, almost in a playfully mocking tone. “I take it you like coming here now? Or were you looking for me?”

Her cheeks suddenly burned red, and she stood next to him, stuttering how she liked the art instead of admitting that she _had_ been watching for him. “Is this one new? I didn’t see it before,” Hazel said quickly to change the subject.

Ray nodded. “Yeah, it’s new. Just got finished the other day, I think.” The painting was of Ray, or who seemed to be Ray, but this time instead of light and vibrant colors like painting from last time, dark and intimidating colors shrouded the figure, the whole canvas, in  a dreary fog.

“The person in the painting looks like you… Again.” Ray stiffened next to her, but said nothing. “I think it’s cool, to find a painting with your likeness on it, whether it is you or not. It’s flattering.” She suddenly remembered the phone call from her nurse the week before. Before she could contemplate the pros and cons of bringing it up, she was already talking about it. “So you and I were in the hospital at the same time, huh? Glad you’re feeling better now.”

Ray frowned and glanced at her sideways. “I was in the hospital, yes, but I wasn’t exactly a patient there.”

“Really? I heard that there was a patient in the ICU with the name Ray Narvaez. Isn’t that your name?” she blurted out, unable to keep the accusatory tone from her voice.

The dark-haired boy next to her turned to face her so quickly that she jumped at the sudden motion. When she looked at him, she saw a mixture of genuine surprise and anger on his face. “I guess there really is no such thing as hospital privacy, is there?” he asked in an acrid voice.

“If you were in the hospital, why would you lie about it? Unless you were hiding something. Like how serious your condition was, as if it was so bad that you didn’t make it out?” Hazel continued, unable to control her curiosity. She had to know the truth! Was it really as she suspected, was he really dead?

Was he the extra?

Ray opened his mouth again as if he wanted to protest, but stopped himself. He didn’t speak again until his face was completely calm and devoid of emotion. He took her hand and started walking to the staircase leading up. “Come with me, Hazel. If you really want answers, let’s talk.”


	7. Complications

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

Hazel was sitting at her kitchen table staring listlessly at her food. Shan sat across from her, seeming not to notice. The older Thomas ate the food in front of her without a care in the world. “So, what were you up to this afternoon, sis?” she asked as she hummed happily to herself.

“I finished my homework in the library with Cry, walked around campus, nothing major.” Hazel responded absently.

“Oh, Cry is talking to you again? That’s great! I’m glad that you guys are cool again, especially since I haven’t been around lately.” Shan exclaimed happily.

Hazel was only half-listening, most of her focus on her conversation with Ray from earlier.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

_Ray led her to a back room of the shop that she hadn’t noticed before; it was homey little room, with a comfortable sofa, a couple of armchairs, and a little coffee table in the center. Both took a seat on the couch and Ray released her hand. She found herself regretting the sudden loss of warmth from his hand, but said nothing about it._

_Surprisingly, it seemed that Ray himself was bringing it up. “How did my hands feel to you?”_

_Flustered, Hazel stuttered out “Well, th-they were… I don’t know, kind of calloused?”_

_Ray sighed. “No, Hazel. That’s not what I mean. They were warm, weren’t they?”_

_“Er, yes?” Hazel dragged out the words, not sure where he was leading._

_“When someone has passed away, how do they generally feel?”_

_“Cold, I guess…”_

_“Then what you were insinuating downstairs is invalid. My hands were warm and not cold, therefore I am very much alive. How the hell did you even find out about all that at the hospital?”_

_“I just asked my nurse… But that’s not important, she told me that Ray Narvaez passed away. That’s you, isn’t it?”_

_Ray’s face grew somber, and for a brief moment, he let his hand rest over his eyes. Finally pulling his hand away, he looked at her with a weary expression. “You heard right, your nurse didn’t lie to you. But she wasn’t talking about me. I’m a junior; Ray Narvaez, Jr.”_

_Hazel was quiet for a moment, feeling a burning heat rising up her back, a painful knot forming in the pit of her stomach. “Ray, I’m so sorry,” she whispered as the pieces clicked into place. It wasn’t him that passed away in the ICU, of course not. It was his father._

_Ray sat leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees, hands clasped in front of him. He was staring down at the table, studying his own reflection in the glass. “Yeah, it’s okay. Things happen. My mom is the one that’s really suffering right now. All she’s done since the funeral is paint. I hardly see her eat.”_

_“Your mom is the one that does all the paintings in the shop,” Hazel stated._

_“Yep, she pours her soul into her art. Sometimes I think it isn’t really healthy for her. But I guess it’s an outlet for her feelings. Still can’t help but worry about her sometimes.”_

_“Wow, your mom is really talented, I really love all of her paintings! So that’s what the shopkeeper meant when she said I was her only customer last week. You’re technically not a customer!” Hazel said sheepishly._

_Ray snorted in subdued laughter. “Shopkeeper? That’s my grandmother!”_

_“Oh…” Hazel bit her lip. “Well, she’s very nice.”_

_Ray looked over at her. “So have I convinced you that I’m not dead yet?” He looked slightly amused, despite the fact that he had to admit to her that his dad had died not too long ago._

_“Yeah, I guess… But then why does everyone treat you like dirt?”_

_“Hmm, well I could tell you… But I think it’s way more fun to not and just keep you guessing. Figure it out yourself,” he teased, standing from his place on the couch. “Come on, I won’t keep you from looking through my mother’s art. Besides, if we stay in here too long, my grandma will think something weird is happening.”_

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

“Hazel, is everything okay?” Hazel looked up and locked eyes with her sister, who was staring at her with a worried expression. She realized then that Shan had finished eating, while her own plate was still very much full.

“Yeah, fine.” To emphasize a point, she took a bite of her food, making a face when she realized that it was now slightly cold. “Anyway, you seem to be in a good mood.”

“Well, you know. Why wouldn’t I be?” Shan said vaguely, than followed up with “You on the other hand, seem bummed about something. Was someone mean to you? Just tell me, and I will destroy them for you!”

“No, Shan,” Hazel responded with a sigh. “No destroying for you. I’m just… tired, I guess. Anyway, what were you saying?”

Shan shot her sister a skeptical look before saying “I want to do something for all the girls in the class, so we can all bond. I mean, there’s only like seven of us in the class; we are practically outnumbered by the boys. And it would be a great way for us to get to know our classmates! Mark is always getting on me about getting to know everyone. Blech. But I guess he means well,” she rambled on and on. “So what do you think? Should I tell the girls about it tomorrow?”

“Uh, sure. If you want to, it’s your idea.” Hazel reminded her.

“Oh… right. Well, if I could just have your vote of confidence, I wouldn’t be so nervous about it.”

“Yes, Shan, you should do it. It would be a nice gesture.”

Shan smiled brightly at her sister. “Now that’s what I wanted to hear!”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

The next day, Shan fidgeted at her seat next to Hazel. “Okay, I’m gonna go talk to the girls,” she said.

Hazel nodded. “Okay, good.” Shan kept standing there, looking at her sister. Hazel sighed. “What is it, Shan?”

“It’s just… I don’t know what to say…” she said in a low voice. “What if they all think it’s stupid?”

“They won’t. And if they do, it’s their loss.”

Shan let out a deep breath. “Okay, I’m just gonna go and get it all over with.” Before she could change her mind, she walked straight toward Lindsay, who had just entered the classroom with Michael. Hazel watched in amusement as her sister buzzed around the room asking all the girls to join her during the lunch break for a “girls-only trust building exercise”. She was so intent on watching her sister that she didn’t notice Mark making his way to her.

He just stood next to her for a minute, watching her watch her sister before he subtly cleared his throat. He smirked as she jumped and turned a disapproving eye toward him. “Can I help you, sir?”

“Maybe. I just wanted to confirm a time for our sushi date.”

Hazel felt herself blush. “Stop calling it a date, you dingus. We can go whenever. Doesn’t matter to me.”

“I have a day off tomorrow. Does tomorrow work?” Mark tried to sound nonchalant, but there was a quiet anxiety in his voice.

“Mark, I will never turn down sushi. Tomorrow sounds great!” Hazel smiled up at him, and added in a teasing tone “But no funny business, understand? My sister will be after you if you try anything!”

Mark laughed and grinned at her as he said “Me, try something? Why I never! Anyway, tomorrow after class, we’re agreed.”

He was walking back to his own seat while Shan stomped back to her own, looking slightly miffed. “Well, we will be joined by MOST of the people that I invited. Lindsay, Suzy, Minx, Rose, you and I will be meeting up in the library during the noon break. We will most certainly NOT be joined by Miss Marzia Bisognin. I guess she has better things to do,” she sniffed, sitting down in her seat roughly and ripping out a binder from her bag.

“Geez, Shan, go easy on her. She just lost her boyfriend not too long ago, she’s probably still hurting,” Hazel reminded her sister.

“Well… still! Mehh...” Shan looked a little angry still, but much less so. “I just wanted to help…” she muttered to herself as she looked over notes from the day before. Hazel didn’t have a chance to reply, as Ryan rushed into the room, as disorganized as ever, and started a lesson without delay.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

During the lunch break, all the aforementioned girls assembled in a dark corner of the auxiliary library, Mr. Ramsey looking on with some amusement at the tiny group.  “So! Here’s what we’re going to do, ladies. Since it is October, I thought that it would be cool if we went around the group telling scary stories! Something to get our hearts racing while we eat our lunch. What do you guys say?” Shan had exclaimed with a grin. There was no one opposed, and though Hazel wasn’t a particular fan of being frightened, she made an exception for this one time.

They had gone through two stories, with Suzy and Lindsay having been the first two to speak. Now it was Shan’s turn, and it was actually a really chilling story. Hazel was surprised that her sister was capable of telling such a story.

Setting a fixed gaze on each person present, Shan paused for dramatic effect, leaving a strained silence to settle around them all. The library seemed to close in on them menacingly. Shan finally spoke again, leaning in closer to lower her voice. The girls all followed suit, holding their breath in anticipation as they listened. “The police questioned the girl the following day, after everything was reported to them anonymously. They suspected her in the murders, you see, but they were giving her a chance to make a statement in her own defense. The only problem was, she couldn’t even explain to them the things she had seen, not without seeming mad. Not only that,” her voice dropped to a whisper, causing the others to strain to hear her next words. “She never did see the beast directly. Saw shadows, yes. Heard it lurking just past her field of vision, she did… but never saw the physical being.”

She leaned back again, but didn’t lose the eerie tone of her voice. “In the end, she couldn’t tell them anything of use. There wasn’t enough evidence available to convict her of the crime, so the charges they tried to file against her ended up being dropped. The case is still unsolved to this day.”

“The girl ended up having serious psychological problems after that terrible night. She wouldn’t cooperate with the psychologist they recommended to her, and ended up in a sanatorium one night after a particularly violent fit, in which she scratched furiously at her veins in an attempt to sever them, repeating the words ‘Saw me’ and ‘Can’t get away’. In the end, there was really no other choice but to put her away, somewhere that they thought was safe.”

Shan seemed ready to end the story there, but Hazel couldn’t resist asking. “What do you mean, somewhere that they ‘thought’ was safe?” Shan smiled at her sibling then, but it wasn’t her usual silly grin, but an almost malicious smirk.

“It’s all speculative, of course, but not long after she got locked up, there were deaths. Lots of them, actually, about eight patients, but she was one of them. One of the most brutal. They chalked the deaths of the patients to ‘mysterious circumstances’, another unsolved case.”

“But she was right. Even though she never saw ‘it’, whatever it was, it had definitely seen her. Now, let me tell you the rules that she broke, the ones that caused it to appear to her in the first place.”

“Rule number one; don’t think about it. Don’t try to imagine it in your mind, because even though you’d be wrong, that’s how it finds you. It feels you reaching out to it. Rule number two; if you think about it, don’t look for it. Don’t search the room you are in, because you will never see it. But it _will_ see you. Rule number three…”

Hazel gulped and fought the urge to look around, although the other four girls were already searching with their eyes, thinking that if they didn’t turn their heads, it wouldn’t count as searching. “Damn it, Shan… I know you’re making this up as you go, but now I’m freaking myself out,” she thought to herself, glaring up at her older sister. Shan let one of her usual silly smiles slip, but only Hazel caught it, then she dropped back into her creepy demeanor.

“If you think about it, if you search for it, if you _hear_ it coming for you; there is one important thing that you must never, ever do.” Then she fixed her eyes up, straight over Hazel’s head in shock, her pupils dilating. “Don’t. Turn. Around.”

Just then, as if on cue, someone entered the darkened library almost carelessly, breaking the quiet tension of the room. Hazel could swear that she jumped up a foot, meanwhile Lindsay had actually cried out next to her.

The group looked to the door and saw Mark, Richard and Michael walk into the room. Richard looked down to where the girls were sitting on the floor and sighed, shaking his head. “Seriously, Shantel? And Rose, you too? Both of you, come here.” Michael shot her and Lindsay such a stern look that they knew they were about to have a serious talking to. Shan bit her lip and reluctantly stood from the group and walked toward the rest of the tactics team, with Rose and Lindsay trailing just behind her. Hazel sighed, and wondered how much trouble the tactics team would get them in for telling scary stories during school hours (even though she doubted that they had broken any rules).

Mark noticed the irritated look that Hazel was giving the group and flashed a reassuring smile that said “I’ll take care of this,” before breaking up the bickering that was slowly becoming a heated argument between Richard, Michael, and Shan. Hazel heard them saying things like “You need to set the example here,” and “not helping the situation”; the words “disrespectful” and “irresponsible” were used before Shan broke away from the two men in disgust, growling at them to leave her alone. She stalked off as Mark started to try mediating the situation and calm Richard and Michael down.

Lindsay and Rose stood next to their boyfriends with some reluctance; they had been having fun for the first time since Felix’s death, only to have it ruined by the ones that they cared about. Hazel felt sorry for both of them. After the group started to disperse and head back to the classroom, Mark held out his arm to Hazel. “May I escort you back to the classroom, madam?”

Hazel rolled her eyes but took his arm and replied “You may.” They walked through the rows of bookshelves toward the exit, both nodding to Geoff as they passed; he just watched them leave with a smug grin on his face. “So, why the sudden break up? We were just trying to bond with each other,” Hazel couldn’t help but say, wanting to defend her sister. Mark started fiddling with his sleeve as they walked, arms still interlinked.

“Well… We heard about it from someone who thought that it was inappropriate for you guys to be telling ghost stories and murder tales and stuff when someone just died,” he tried to explain in a faltering voice. “Not that I agree, but we had to check it out anyway.”

“Marzia,” Hazel said suddenly, and when Mark didn’t counter her, she knew that she was right. “Well, I guess I understand. She’s still hurting; Cry is too. But Shan was just trying to reach out and make friends. She didn’t mean any harm.”

“I know she didn’t. That’s why I wasn’t trying to reprimand her. I wouldn’t have minded if you guys continued, I just wanted to check it out. Richard and Michael jumped the gun a bit.” Mark explained. They reached the door of the classroom and pulled apart just before they entered. “Can you apologize to Shan for me? I wasn’t trying to make her mad.”

Hazel nodded. “Yeah, no problem. I’ll tell her.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

The next day Shan was especially cold to Richard and Michael, Hazel noticed. She interacted just fine with Sean, Lindsay, and Mark, but basically ignored the other two. While this behavior didn’t seem to bother Richard at all, she could tell that it was getting to Michael, judging by how he kept clenching his fist when he tried in vain to get her attention.

Cry and Hazel were idly chatting about some complicated math problems when Suzy sat down in Shan’s usual seat and said “Hey, Hazel! Yesterday was so much fun! We should like start a story time club after school or something, don’t you think? Like a no-boys-allowed thing? I bet it would be fun!” Cry excused himself to go to his seat and keep Marzia company while Suzy went on in an animated voice. “We could call ourselves the Spook Crew or something!”

Hazel couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, maybe. Shan will be happy to hear that someone liked her idea. She was nervous about asking everyone.”

“Oh, it was the best idea! I loved it! Hey, we should definitely ask everyone if they’re interested in keeping it going. Just maybe not during school hours so we don’t get busted again.” She let out a mischievous laugh before continuing. “We could like meet at the local diner down the street and order food while we tell stories!”

Hazel laughed with her. “Sounds good to me!”

Not knowing that Wade and Bob were near enough to hear their conversation, Hazel was surprised when Wade suddenly said “Hey, that sounds pretty cool, I wanna join!”

Suzy fake-pouted and stuck her tongue out at him. “No! Girls only, guys are weird!”

“Aww man. But it sounds so cool…”

“Stop eavesdropping on girls, Wade!” Bob laughed, nudging his friend gently.

“Ah, true best friends. I love the whole straight-man funny-man comedy feel that you guys have. I take it you knew each other before?” Suzy observed.

Wade nodded. “Yeah, Bob and I have kinda been best friends for years. We both came here from Cincinnati. I guess we both heard the same story at our high school.”

“And what story is that? Oh wait, you mean the whole ‘graduate from there and you become famous’ story? We all heard that one,” Hazel said.

“No, we mean a different story; our school has an urban legend about a guy that used to go to our high school that got accepted to Kennewick. He was from the class that graduated like thirteen years before or something like that; when that ‘become famous’ rumor was just starting to circulate. Everyone was trying to get into Kennewick College, but he was the only one to get in of all the applicants from our school. Even more inspirational is the fact that he didn’t have a good support system at home, so no one wanted him to go but he still went. At least, that’s how the story goes.” Bob explained.

“Did he get famous? Who was it?” Hazel asked.

“Well, I don’t know. I can’t really remember,” Bob admitted. “But I’m pretty sure that it was true.”

Shan returned to her seat. “Hey, Suzy! Bob, Wade… Well, it looks like we have a group meeting over here! What’s up?”

“We’re gonna start a horror story-telling club!” Wade blurted out, causing Bob to laugh.

“When did we establish that? You guys can’t come!” Suzy insisted. “Well… unless you’re really good story tellers.”

“Are you kidding? We’re the best!” Wade exclaimed. “I love horror stories, it would be fun!”

“Oh, like what we did yesterday? Yeah, it would be cool if we could do that on a regular basis. Even if we ran out of stories to tell, we could tell different kinds of stories. Or we could watch movies too!” Shan suggested, her eyes lighting up at the idea.

Hazel smiled as the people around her continued to chat and form this make-believe club. She was glad that she and her sister were starting to make more friends outside of their usual group of associates.

Hazel was so pleased with their progress that she almost forgot that she had plans with Mark after school. It was Shan that reminded her as they packed up for the day “Hey, you and Mark are going out for sushi after the tactics meeting, right?”

“Oh right… I forgot,” Hazel admitted with a guilty grin. So she found herself pacing the library instead of doing homework. Cry watched her go back and forth from their table, contemplative.

Finally, he asked “Something bothering you, Hazel?”

“No, it’s just that I made plans with Mark and I guess I didn’t realize at the time that I would be this nervous about it. I mean, it’s just gonna be the two of us. I think,” Hazel said as she continued to pace.

Cry continued to watch her from his seat. “Why are you nervous? I mean, do you like him or something?”

Hazel stopped pacing as she felt heat rising up her back, into her cheeks. “No! It’s not that. Just well, I have no idea what we’re going to talk about. I don’t know much about him,” Hazel admitted. “He might find me boring. Or vice versa. I just want my sushi…”

Cry started to laugh. “Why worry about it? I’m sure you’ll be fine. There’s nothing to not like about you; he won’t think that you’re boring. He’ll probably just fall even harder for you.”

“Hey, shut up Cry! You’re not helping,” Hazel scolded, though Cry just kept laughing.

Before Hazel knew it, Shan was peeking her head through the library doors. “Hey sis, I’m gonna take off now. Mark’s waiting by the classroom for you so you guys can just drive there together. I already told him that I’d kick his ass if he hurt you, so you’re safe!” This declaration only made Cry laugh even harder, to the point that he could hardly breathe and was gasping for air.

“Shut up, Cry!” both sisters exclaimed before exiting the library, with Shan heading for the parking lot, and Hazel walking toward the classroom to meet up with Mark.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Hazel was happily munching on a rainbow roll while listening to Mark talk about his hometown. As it turned out, she didn’t have to worry about the car ride with Mark being awkward at all. Not only had he been a perfect gentleman the whole time, he had plenty of things for them to talk about, and both were composed as ever. As it turned out, they had some common tastes in TV shows. They spent a lot of the car ride talking about Doctor Who up until they entered the restaurant and ordered.

Hazel thought that she was being sneaky by asking a few offhanded questions about his role as head of tactics, all questions that he expertly slipped out of without revealing anything. “So what’s up with the uniforms anyway? You guys are the only ones wearing one; if it’s not actually required by the school, then what’s the point?” Hazel asked, testing the waters yet again to see if he would answer any questions at all about the tactics team.

This time she got an answer. Mark smiled and said “I thought it was a pretty neat idea! I mean, if we’re supposed to work together as a group, then I wanted something that could tie us all together, make us feel like a real team. That’s where the uniforms come in; the tactics team from some years ago used to wear uniforms, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring that back. This way we are (pardon the pun) uniform; we are one.”

“That’s… a great idea, actually. I’m surprised,” Hazel acknowledged. “I can’t say anything against it.”

“Of course not! That’s why I’m so brilliant.”

“Whoa there, I never said that!” Hazel laughed. “You’re getting ahead of yourself.”

“Well, it’s what you meant! Don’t deny it,” Mark shot back. “Besides, I look great in that uniform. It’s a wonderful idea.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

After they were done eating, both of them decided to walk off their food before turning in for the night. As they walked down the street in the dwindling light of dusk, they encountered a familiar face. “Gavin, hey!” Mark called out cheerfully.

They heard a confused squawk as Gavin turned around, then said “Oh! I swear that whenever I’m in town, I run into everybody except the people I’m supposed to be meetin’ up with.”

“Nice to see you too,” Mark commented sarcastically before saying “Who were you meeting up with? Maybe we can help you find them.”

“Looking for Micool. We’re supposed to be getting bevs tonight, but he’s not at the bar yet. Late, as always. So I thought I’d take a lap around the block and go back.”

“That’s… a good idea?” Hazel raised an eyebrow. “Why not just wait at the bar until he shows? Now you may have missed him?”

“Bollocks! Then it will be his fault for being late! He knows how bored I get,” Gavin huffed, refusing to be wrong. As they were speaking, a commotion was being caused as people along the street observed what seemed to be a drunk driver coming down the road. Hazel watched in horror as the man behind the wheel seemed to momentarily lose control of their perception, thus causing him to drive onto the sidewalk, straight for the trio!

Time started to slow down, as if she was watching a scene in a slow motion view. Her eyes widened as she stood rooted to her spot, transfixed by the headlights of the oncoming car. Gavin had also frozen in his fear. It was only Mark who had enough sense to act quickly, grabbing both of them by the arm and yanking them out of the way mere seconds before the car came to a crashing halt right where they had been standing.

As she came to her senses, Hazel realized that her breathing had picked up speed. Gavin was muttering incoherently to himself, clutching at his chest in fear. “Bloody hell!” he cried out. “We almost fucking died! I don’t want to, it’s not fair! Why does the damn curse have to be real?!”

“Gavin,” Mark said in a warning tone, as if afraid of what Gavin was about to say next. He kept glancing at Hazel in reflex.

“No!” Gavin yelled, ignoring Mark. “I don’t care what you have to say about it, mr. head of tactics! You are doing a shit job of it all, and we are all going to die, thanks to both of you! Stay the bloody hell away from me; you’re both bad fucking luck!” His explosive rant over, Gavin started running on trembling legs, heading for the bar where Hazel could just see Michael poking his head out the door, a look of pure terror on his face. He’d seen the whole thing.

It was quiet as both Hazel and Mark walked to the parking lot of the restaurant, both deciding that they had enough adventure for one night without outwardly communicating to each other; it was an unspoken agreement. The younger Thomas was the one to break the silence. “I know about the curse.”

She heard Mark sigh next to her. “I figured. You’re smart; you were bound to figure it out eventually.”

Hazel turned her gaze to his face. “I wouldn’t have had to figure it out if you had just told me in the first place.” She hesitated before saying “Why didn’t you?”

He was silent for so long that she thought he wouldn’t answer. It wasn’t until they reached his car that he spoke. He walked around to her side to open the door, but before he did, he said “There was a circumstantial change; after talking to your sister, I wasn’t sure if telling you right away was a good idea, so I tried to wait for a convenient time to say something. Except that the convenient time never came, and the more I put it off, the harder it got for me to say anything.” Mark ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I won’t pass the blame; it’s all my fault. I’m failing the class, just like Gavin said. We may have to change tactics soon, but I’m trying to hold off on it as long as I can. I’m sure that your sister agrees with me.”

“What is our tactic right now anyway? That’s the one thing I never figured out.” Hazel commented.

Instead of answering, Mark opened the door for her and motioned her into the car. Before he shut the door, he replied “If I told you now, I’m afraid that it wouldn’t matter anyway.”

Hazel wanted to argue with him. She wanted so badly to challenge him, say “try me, I might surprise you,” but in the end she knew that it wouldn’t make a difference. There was a finality to his tone, as if he’d already made up his mind. He was resolved to not tell her until it was unavoidable. It was better to be on his good side like this than to badger and antagonize him until he gave up; there was no indication that he would give up and tell her anyway. She would have to find another way, just like Cry had said, she would have to figure it out on her own.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Gavin purposefully stayed away from Hazel, as if he regarded her as having some horrible disease. Hazel didn’t particularly care; whatever he thought he was accomplishing by doing so was futile, and it was his loss anyway.

Shan was chattering on about their first meeting of the Spook Crew at Jay’s Diner (apparently she and Suzy actually managed to get a few interested people to join them in their quest for the perfect horror… Wade included). She hadn’t stopped talking about it since the night before.

Bob and Wade stood to the side, talking with Shan about the success of their first meeting. Bob seemed intent on secretly getting Hazel’s attention. Once she finally paid attention to him, he nodded to a more secluded spot, motioning for her to follow. She did so; Shan and the others were so busy talking that they didn’t really notice. “Something up?” She asked when they were a good distance away.

“Heard you and Mark were hanging out the other day,” Bob started to say. “Did he talk to you about, you know… KM stuff?”

Hazel tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Like, you know? The class rules and stuff?” Bob persisted. “He really should have said something when you first joined the class, but he never did for some reason. I just feel sort of bad that he hasn’t done anything about it yet. I know what it’s like to be the last to know things.”

Hazel’s inner detective began to celebrate; she may have lost Cry as an informant, but it seemed as if she could get Bob to tell her about the class tactics, if she tried hard enough. “No, he didn’t. We touched on the subject, but he didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already figure out, and wouldn’t say about the rest.”

“Geez, Mark… It’s really not like him. You would think he would be a little more considerate. Especially of you, since he seems to like you,” Bob spoke so candidly about it that Hazel couldn’t help but believe him, though it had never crossed her mind to think that Mark actually liked her. “Hey, whatever you need to know, I’ll tell you. It’s important for all of us in KM to know these things. He really should know that if he’s our leader.”

Hazel smiled; that was easier than she had anticipated. “Great! Meet me in the library during our lunch break. And Bob? Thanks a lot,” she said honestly. “I’m glad you’re willing to help me.”

Bob shrugged. “It only makes sense. We need everyone to know if this is going to work. See you at lunch.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Hazel tapped her fingers against the table impatiently. Something was definitely wrong. Bob should have been to the library by now. Unless he’d lied about wanting to tell her, unless he’d forgotten, unless he’d changed his mind. Hazel waited another five minutes before getting up and pacing the nearby row of books. Mr. Ramsey watched her impatient activity a bit longer before saying “You alright?”

Hazel sighed. “I’m fine, Mr. Ramsey. I was supposed to talk to someone about something, but he’s still not here. I think I’d better go find him and see if he still wants to talk.” She grabbed her bag and left the library. As she walked down the hallway, she noticed a nervous buzz running through her classmates. They all seemed agitated, speaking in frantic whispers unless she passed by, at which point they became eerily silent. When Hazel passed the classroom, her sister practically grabbed her and pulled her into the nearly empty room.

“Hazel, where were you?!” Shan raved. “You just disappeared, and I thought that something happened to you too!”

Hazel’s brow furrowed as she shook herself free from her sister’s grip. “I’m fine! What the hell is going on? Everyone is being creepy again!”

Shan paused, a look of sorrow passing over her face. “Hazel, sit down a minute.”

“No! Why?”

“Something happened.”

Hazel’s breath caught in her throat, and all she could think about was Bob. “Is it…?” She couldn’t finish asking.

Shan sat down in her usual seat and waited for Hazel to do the same before speaking. “Bob.” Hazel put her hand up to her face to catch the sudden tears that were pooling around her eyes. “He was in the cafeteria, getting his lunch when a fight broke out in the back kitchen. In the heat of the moment, one of the chefs grabbed a kitchen knife and chucked it at the wall to emphasize a point; only he missed the wall by a long shot. It was thrown through the cafeteria window… straight into his throat. I think it was over quickly, so maybe he didn’t suffer but… He’s gone. It happened so fast.”

“The curse!” Hazel choked out bitterly, to which Shan nodded in grave understanding. 

“That’s right. We were all hoping that it wasn’t true but… Felix died at the end of September. It’s the next month… and a second death has occurred. Hazel, I’m so sorry, but I think…” Shan started to tear up as she spoke. “I’m sorry; I think that we have to change tactics.”


	8. The Invisible

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

Shan was always irritated now when they held a tactics meeting, and though she didn’t mean to, sometimes she would lash out at Hazel. It got to the point that the mornings before a meeting almost got unbearably hostile. If Cry hadn’t been there to mediate, things would have probably been worse. All that Hazel could ever get out of her about the meetings was that the rest of the team was attempting to pass a motion that she would fight to the death if she had to. “The only problem is, now even Mark is starting to agree with the others...” she would mumble, but refused to elaborate further.

Bob’s death shook the classroom even worse than Felix’s death had. Now there was no denying the suspicious and cold looks from her fellow classmates. Out of everyone that Hazel had begun to associate with, she was left with communicating solely with Lindsay and Cry when her sister wasn’t around. Even then, Lindsay seemed less and less willing to converse with her every day that went by. Cry was less shaken, but still he warned Hazel constantly that if the class was forced to pursue what he kept calling “a fallout tactic”, that he wouldn’t be able to fight against it.

Hazel insisted that she understood, in order to make her friends feel better, though in reality she didn’t like the sound of it, and didn’t look forward to the switch in tactics at all. She had never even learned what the first class tactic was, and now there would be another one to get used to, and most likely directed at her for no reason that she could come up with.

One day, after some time had passed since the second incident, Hazel was sitting in the library with Cry, reading and eating their lunch while they waited for class to resume. They were chatting idly about the books that they had chosen when the door to the library opened and they heard rather than saw someone walk to the information desk of the auxiliary library and speak with Mr. Ramsey in a hushed voice. Both were so engrossed in conversation that they didn’t bother looking up. So they were very much surprised when Mr. Ramsey walked over to where they were sitting and address Cry.

“You are needed in the classroom,” he informed Cry with a somber look. Hazel watched as her friend’s shoulders stiffened, as if he was afraid of what he was about to hear.

“Want me to come with you?” Hazel asked, hoping to be of some help to her friend; he may have lost a family member, and she knows it’s what he’s thinking too.

“No, I- I’m fine. I’ll be back in a bit,” he lied, though she could see through him easily. He was afraid of what he would find out, but still, he was strong enough to go alone. Hazel nodded, and watched as her friend exited the library on shaky legs.

Mr. Ramsey was still standing there with a look of… sympathy? “You’re always welcome in the library, Hazel,” he said. Hazel nodded, confused. Why was he saying…?

Before she could ask, he was walking back toward his desk. Hazel waited for five, ten minutes. Cry never came back. Now she was beginning to worry, feeling an icy chill run through her; what if something had happened to Cry while he was going back to class? Last time she had been waiting for someone, they had become the next curse victim.

She began hastily gathering her things as well as Cry’s, and started rushing out of the library as she felt sweat starting to form along her palms, across her forehead. “Class should be starting in a minute anyway,” she reasoned, willing away the panic she was beginning to feel.

When she neared the classroom, she noticed with a new wave of fear that it was deathly silent inside. She couldn’t hear the usual chatter of her classmates hanging around the threshold of the room. She practically bolted into the room.

Looking around, her heart started to beat painfully in her chest. The classroom was deserted. But not only was it devoid of people, there wasn’t even any evidence of a person in the classroom. All of the purses and bags were gone, Ryan’s included. Hazel felt her stomach drop; had they all left for some emergency? But Shan would have told her…

Nevertheless, she set Cry’s things on his usual seat and sat down at her own desk. She decided to wait five minutes and see if anyone else would show up. If not, she would leave for the day, although it wasn’t like Shan to not tell her something like a cancelled class.

As she sat waiting, someone did eventually show up when the five minutes was nearly ended. She heard the sound of footfalls entering the classroom, and looked up to see Mark walk in, looking at her as if he had expected her. “Hazel. I have to talk to you about something,” he said in a serious tone, his usual playfulness and teasing tone were gone.

“Okay,” Hazel replied, though she started to feel nervous again. He sounded so serious, and she couldn’t imagine what was so important that class would have to be cancelled, and why Shan wouldn’t have warned her about it. Her thoughts immediately reverted back to Cry. “Did something happen?”

Mark sighed and sat down in Shan’s usual seat, turning to face her. “Listen, I know that you already know about the curse and what it means for us. You know that Felix and Bob were both victims, and that there will likely be more victims if we don’t step up to do something about it.”

Hazel nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t understand where you’re going with all of this.”

“Do you know what the role of the tactics team plays in our class? Do you know what my job is in relation to the curse?”

“Not really. I guess you guys are trying to find a way to stop it?”

Mark nodded. “That’s right. It’s our job to find a way to protect the students for as long as we can. We made it through one month without any deaths, but then they started up in September for some unknown reason. Some members of the team have theories as to why, but none are conclusive. There’s no denying that our beginning class tactic has failed, and we have to switch over to another measure.”

“Are you finally going to tell me what the first class tactic was?”

Mark shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I think you’ll be able to put it together, yes. The thing is, this new tactic that we’ve resolved on involves you. Your sister is going to do her best to follow along with it, but right now she’s a bit mad at all of us. That’s why she’s not here with me to tell you…” He sighed again. “At the beginning of the semester, we heard of a theory passed down by tactics teams of the past. The theory is that the reason that the deaths occur because of the extra student that resides in the class each year. We still haven’t come up with a good reason why this phenomenon occurs, we only know that it is so. No one ever knows who the dead student because everyone’s memories, along with school records, are mysteriously altered, so it’s impossible to tell-”

Hazel had to interrupt. “Sorry Mark, but I know all of this already. Someone filled me in a while ago. But what does all of this have to do with me? And where is everyone?”

“The tactics team called a meeting to discuss the change with the rest of the class, and then Ryan sent everyone home for the day. Anyway, since we all figured that the deaths are happening because of the extra student, we thought, ‘what would happen if we acted as if there was no extra student? Instead of twenty-five classmates, what if we pretended that there were only twenty-four?’ And our class tactic became clear from that moment.”

Hazel gasped involuntarily as the last piece clicked into place. That was why Ray…! “So that’s what Felix meant when he talked about the invisible! But now you’re changing tactics. How, what are you going to do?”

Mark couldn’t bring himself to answer her directly, he just looked up at her with an expression of genuine regret. “I’m so sorry that it had to come to this, but we can’t come up with anything else. And this tactic has worked before, according to past leaders. If anything, this might buy us some more time, but…” he trailed off, letting his words hang in the air.

“You mean, me… I’m the one that you’re going to… pretend doesn’t exist?”

Mark bowed his head in slight admission. “I wish there was some other way. Right now, there just isn’t… I’m sorry Hazel.” And when he said that, she believed him, because he looked truly apologetic. He reached out as if he was going to touch her arm or hold her hand, something. But at the last second, he withdrew, and leaned away from her again. “It’s not something that I wanted to happen,” he admitted, with more feeling than she expected.

Suddenly finding it hard to swallow, Hazel said “What about at home? Shan and I have an apartment together, even there, will I not be acknowledged?”

“There are some tricky details to be worked out, like that one. I’m leaving it to your sister’s discretion.” As he was explaining, Cry wandered into the classroom, narrowing his eyes when he saw Mark.

Hazel almost cried out with joy, she had been so worried when Cry hadn’t returned. Though now she knew why he couldn’t. She watched as Cry did his best to not look at her, instead walking over to his things piled on top of his desk. “Hey Mark, why the hell are you just sitting in an empty classroom like this? A little weird, don’t you think?” Hazel flinched when she heard the venom in his tone. He was mad.

“Oh look, my things have transported from the library to my desk. I would love to thank the mysterious entity that did so, because it was so thoughtful.” Cry continued, collecting his things as he spoke.

“Cry,” Mark warned, the annoyance starting to creep into his voice.

“What is it, oh fearless leader? I’m just talking to myself out loud, like you were doing a minute ago, right?” he challenged, and when Mark didn’t respond, just shot a displeased look at him, he chuckled mirthlessly. “That’s what I thought. I’ll see you later.” And with that, he left the room in a brisk walk.

“I’m gonna have to have a talk with him later, I think. Anyway, Shan’s probably waiting for you outside. I trust you guys can work out something while in and out of school.” Mark stood to leave the room.

“Hey Mark?” Hazel found herself saying. Mark froze where he was, looking at her expectantly, hanging on her words. “I know that you’re just looking out for everyone, it’s not your fault. Okay? I don’t blame you at all,” she smiled at him. “So don’t even think about blaming yourself.”

Mark smiled back, a small and disbelieving smile. A haunting smile that sucked the air out of her lungs unexpectedly. “Thanks, Hazel.” It was a sight that she wouldn’t be able to get out of her head for the rest of the day.

She left the classroom first, and jumped upon finding Cry still in the hallway, leaning against the wall as if he had been waiting for her. She wasn’t sure if she should allow Cry to continue going against the tactics team, but if she tried talking to him, wouldn’t that be invalidating the plan anyway? Besides, he wasn’t technically speaking to her; he hadn’t even looked her way. She started walking down the familiar hallway, towards the parking lot that Shan always parked in. Cry wordlessly got off the wall and walked alongside her.

It wasn’t until they got outside that she said in a quiet voice “It’s okay, Cry.”

Cry exploded then. “No it’s not! They already tried this bullshit once, and it didn’t fucking work. I won’t go along with it again,” he growled out bitterly.

“It didn’t work because of me. I was talking to… him… the entire time, it was all my fault. It was my fault that Felix and Bob are-”

“ **No.** How could it be, when it was Mark’s responsibility to tell you about things that you had to find out on your own? Things that your sister should have told you anyway, rules be damned? The whole damn team failed, but it wasn’t you.”

“Cry, please calm down,” Hazel pleaded with wide eyes. “In the end, it’s up to me to stick to this, and I’m choosing to go along with it. So please? Just trust me on this. I don’t want anyone else to be hurt, and if I can help to stop it, then I’m glad.”

Cry huffed indignantly, not looking at her or answering.

“It’s okay, so don’t worry about me, alright? We have to try.”

At first it seemed like he wouldn’t answer. They just stood in front of the Tech building, looking moody and upset. Suddenly she found herself being pulled into a tight hug, breathing into his shoulder. He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “Okay,” he said. “If you’re okay with this, then I’ll do my best to help. Just say the word if you don’t want to anymore, got it? Then it stops.”

Stunned into silence, all Hazel could do was nod, her mouth and nose still pressed firmly into his shoulder. He released his grip on her with a quick apology. “Starting tomorrow, we can’t talk anymore, then.” Hazel finally said. She realized that Mr. Ramsey must’ve known what was happening, as his words swirled around her head.

_You’re always welcome in the library, Hazel._

“He definitely knew,” Hazel muttered to herself. Then shaking herself out of her recollections, smiled up at Cry. “See you tomorrow then. I mean, well… Yeah.”

Cry still didn’t look happy, but he nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Bye, Hazel.” She watched him start walking away for a moment before turning toward the parking lot, where her sister must have been waiting for her.

When she got to the car, Shan was already sitting at the wheel, staring furiously ahead of her. Hazel wasn’t sure if it was okay to talk to her yet, so she silently entered and strapped herself in. The sisters didn’t exchange one word the entire car ride home. It wasn’t until they were safely in their apartment that Hazel even attempted it.

“Mark told me what you guys decided.” Shan flinched but still said nothing, just continued to look through the refrigerator for things she could make for dinner. “Um, I get that you have to ignore me now at school, but that doesn’t count for home too… Does it?” Still no response, and now Hazel was getting worried.

Shan started stacking frozen dinners onto the counter to choose from, still not speaking, though Hazel thought she heard a whimper from her older sister. She couldn’t help how small her voice got when she tried to talk to her sister a third time. “…Shan?”

Suddenly, Shan slammed down one of the frozen boxes and burst into tears. Heavy sobs wracked her system as she fought to regain control, but in vain. Just the sight made Hazel want to cry herself, and she immediately regretted saying anything. “It’s okay, we don’t have to talk,” the younger Thomas quickly amended, but it didn’t work.

She watched helplessly as her older sister vacated their kitchen and sat down on the living room couch. “I tried!” she finally cried out, sounding so bitter and broken that Hazel rushed forward to hug her sister, the frozen dinners forgotten on the counter. Shan curled up into a fetal position, as if trying to protect herself. “I tried but they wouldn’t listen, why would they make me do this? It’s not fair!” Both sister spent a long time like that, with Hazel hugging her elder sibling tightly while Shan wept intensely, repeating the words “I tried” and “not fair” over and over again.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Hazel walked into the dark little paintings shop that she always seemed drawn to when things were going wrong. If nothing else, she wanted to find Ray and apologize for stupidly thinking he was a ghost or something.  She was surprised to find Ray behind the counter of the store instead of his grandmother. “Welcome… Oh. It’s just you,” Ray said in a teasing tone.

“Hey. Your grandmother isn’t here today?”

“Nah, she’s got more of a life than I do, I’m sad to say. She had plans to play bingo with friends or something. I’m just watching the store like a dutiful son and grandson.” His brow furrowed. “Hey, what’s wrong? You don’t look so good.”

Hazel had felt a sudden pain where her surgical scars were. “I’m okay, I think… Sometimes there’s a sharp pain where my surgery was,” she explained.

Ray walked around the counter, toward her, motioning for her to follow. “Come on, why don’t you sit down or something? The last thing I need is a girl fainting in my mom’s shop.”

“Shouldn’t you be at the store front since no one else is here? What if you get robbed or something?” Hazel asked as he grabbed her hand and pulled her along toward the back, just like before.

Ray chuckled. “Yeah, I’m so worried. I think your health is more important.”

“A little scar pain is nothing. You just don’t want to be bored being stuck at the front all day!” she accused lightheartedly.

“Got me. But believe me, no one ever comes in here except you.” She realized that he was leading her past the little coffee table that they sat at last time, through a door and into a stairwell. As they descended he said “So I assume you had something you wanted to talk about?”

“Yeah, kinda. Do you live here?” she asked, suddenly struck by the idea.

“Wow, nothing gets past you, does it? Yes we live above the shop. It’s just cheaper for us this way.” Once they were in a cozy front room, Ray motioned to the couch. “Make yourself at home. Do you want water or something? We have soda too… I think.”

Hazel shook her head before saying “You weren’t at school today, were you?”

“No, had to watch the store all day. Boring.” Ray replied, bringing her a glass of water anyway. “Why, did everyone miss me today?”

“They have to ignore me now, too.”

Ray paused. He looked at her with a furrowed brow. “Damn,” was all he managed to say at first. Plopping down next to her, he took a long hard look at her face. “You’re not kidding. Well that’s fucked up. I thought they would give that shit up when they realized it didn’t work with me.”

Hazel shook her head. “It was because of me. I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to talk to you. I think they’re hoping that ignoring both of us will cancel out the fact that I was acknowledging you. By ignoring both of us, maybe they can trick the system, and the deaths will stop. Well, hopefully anyway.”

Ray sighed. “It’s still fucked up. It won’t work. It didn’t work. It never fucking worked. Just look at my dad,” he muttered to himself.

“Did anyone know that your father was a victim?” Hazel asked quietly. The silence stretched between them for a long time.

“No,” he finally replied. “Not only was I not allowed to talk to anyone, I didn’t let myself think that it was the curse. Not right away. I mean, who wants to think that they lost a family member to a stupid curse? No one, because it’s ridiculous.”

“I guess I see what you mean, I would hate to lose anyone in my family because of it,” Hazel admitted. “Sorry I brought it up, we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

Ray nodded, seeming relieved. “Thanks. So I guess just because our class is ignoring us doesn’t mean we need to ignore each other, right? Nothing has to change between us.”

“I guess. It’s gonna be hard for my sister. She was really upset about it, tried to fight it as long as she could.” Hazel admitted. “But it’s not their fault; the tactics team is just trying to protect the class.”

Ray rolled his eyes. “What an excellent job they're doing. We’ve already lost like four lives to the curse.”

“Four? I thought only Bob and Felix…”

“Well, two in our class, yes. I overheard Minx and Aaron talking. They both lost someone close to them recently, though I wasn’t listening close enough to hear exactly who. Wasn’t any of my business anyway. But there you have it, already four deaths and what does the tactics team do? ‘Let’s try ignoring someone else!’ Fucking stupid.”

That saddening smile that Hazel had seen across Mark’s face earlier flashed across her mind, and she felt compelled to defend him. “You can’t blame them for doing their best. Mark said that this strategy has worked before, so why not just try it once more? They have to do something,” she argued.

Ray threw his hands up. “Okay, sorry. If you want to believe that, fine. But it’s not going to work. All the hope in the worlds won’t make that happen,” he pointed out. Hazel knew he was right, but said nothing. He noticed the look on her face and forced himself to calm down. “Sorry, Hazel. I’m just mad that they’re pushing all of this on you after the way they treated you so far. I mean, it was Mark’s responsibility to let you know about… well, me, and he didn’t. It’s not fair to you.”

“I didn’t hear you saying anything about it when I first started talking to you either. You didn’t try to stop me,” she couldn’t stop the accusation from slipping past her lips.

Ray stiffened at her words. “Um, actually I did. I told you several times that you shouldn’t talk to me. After a while, I just gave up on telling you. Don’t try to put it on me.”

“I wasn’t… Oh never mind.” Hazel huffed. “Though I guess you warned me as vaguely as everyone else, you had the power to tell me, just like everyone. And you didn’t, so don’t act like it’s all Mark or Shan’s fault! It was everyone!”

“Okay, we’re starting to get irritated, let’s stop. I’m going to lock up downstairs, so I’ll be back, okay?” Ray was down the steps before Hazel could respond. He came back minutes later, switched on the television, and handed her a GameCube remote. “We’re playing Super Smash, don’t fight it.”

Hazel found that even though she hardly won a round, just playing a game relaxed her and made her forget she had been mad at Ray, which may have been his aim in the first place. However, the tactics team came up again in conversation during a particular lull in the game. “So how did they first set it up? I mean, did the class take a vote on who would be the invisible?”

Ray shrugged. “Ahh, not really. I volunteered.” He said it so nonchalantly that Hazel almost didn’t acknowledge it. But of course once the words sank in, her head snapped in his direction.

“You volunteered?”

“Yeah. I mean, it didn’t seem fair to try to make someone else suffer when I knew that I could handle it. Being popular isn’t a big deal to me anyway, so I knew I could handle it, as opposed to some people in our class. Could you imagine trying to make someone like Gavin the invisible? It would never have worked.”

“Not that it worked anyway, thanks to me,” Hazel said in contemplation. “That reminds me, I came here to apologize for calling you a ghost.”

Ray let out a genuine laugh before saying “It’s whatever. Anyway, my dad passed away before you started talking to me. It wasn’t you. I don’t know what happened.” As he spoke, he voice grew softer when talking about his dad. It still hurt him to talk about it.

“But how do you know that your dad was a victim of the curse? He might have passed from natural causes.”

Ray’s jaw locked into place as he answered. “No, it was definitely the curse, I know that now. He got sick three weeks into the semester. Then, days later, he was gone. Even the doctors said it was unusually sudden, with the condition that he used to be in, compared to the condition he was in when he died. The deterioration was too fast. It was unnatural.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to keep bringing it up.” Ray told her to forget it and they kept playing until Hazel was sure she should get home to see if Shan was feeling better. “I guess I should get going.” Ray nodded and flipped off the console and television, rising to walk her to the door. “Hey Ray, since we technically don’t exist in the class anymore, why go?”

“My point exactly. The class is already fucking useless, no offense to Ryan.” Ray’s eyes widened. “I just had an idea! Meet me in front of the auxiliary library tomorrow before class. I’ll explain then.”

Hazel couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, definitely.” As she walked away from the shop, she couldn’t help but turn and glance back at the dark haired boy. He smirked and waved her on playfully. She ended that day by walking to her apartment as the sun set above, her mind flipping alternatively between that teasing smirk and Mark’s lonely smile from before.


	9. Depths of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

“Hazel…” The younger Thomas turned toward the sound of her sister’s voice. Shan was leaning on their kitchen table with her arms folded across her chest. “Here’s the deal; we can be normal at home, obviously. I’ll be damned if anyone thinks that I’m going to ignore my own sister in an apartment that we share. But once we get to the school, you know the drill. I can’t acknowledge you from the time we enter the parking lot until we are home again. That has to be the way it works for now, at least until we can find a better tactic to employ.” Her eyes misted over. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not upset, Shan; I’m relieved. I’m just glad to know that I’m not going crazy.” Hazel smiled at her sister. “So enough moping, let’s get to school!” She smile, but secretly dreaded the thought of going to class. She understood that this was necessary, for the sake of the whole class, but it still stung. The thought of being ignored by Cry, Lindsay, Suzy, and even Shan hurt a lot. “But it’s only for now; once they find a new tactic, I won’t be alone anymore.” She had to keep telling herself.

The only real comfort she would have was that she now knew that Ray wasn’t a ghost or a figment of her imagination. She could still interact with him without breaking the rules. Which reminded her, she needed to meet up with him at the library before class. She wondered what he had in mind.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

“We’re going to do _what_?” Hazel asked, still processing what Ray was saying.

He rolled his eyes. “We don’t exist to our classmates, therefore they can say nothing to us if we’re (for example) talking during class or dancing around the room; we can literally do whatever we want, so why not take advantage of that? Just to teach our class a little lesson,” he grinned at her. “So, if you don’t mind an impromptu dance lesson, what do you say we get some payback of our own?”

Hazel hesitated, and when Ray fixed her with a “What is it now?” type of look, she explained. “Everyone’s gonna see me dancing, and I’m not that great.”

“Well, technically they won’t ‘see’ you because we aren’t supposed to be acknowledged. And I can’t dance for shit either, but it might be fun. Come on, the pair that suffers together, stays together, right?”

“I don’t think that’s an actual saying…” Hazel laughed, but made no further points against the plan.

Ray shot her a smug smile. “Our classroom awaits.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Hazel drummed her fingers against her desk impatiently. Ray had said to wait until Ryan’s morning lecture was in full swing. And in fact, Ryan was starting to get so into his own lesson that he had his back to the class for long periods of time as he rambled on about the importance of a good microphone and scribbled furiously on the chalkboard.

The younger Thomas glanced across the room, over at Ray, who looked her way at the same time; he nodded his assent, and they both rose from their seats.

Shan flinched next to her sister but fought the urge to turn her head and give Hazel an admonishing look; instead she watched from the corner of her eye in confusion. They approached each other until both were standing in the center of the room, in the middle row. There was a strained silence surrounding them as the rest of their classmates struggled to stay focused on Ryan’s tangent about different audio qualities.

With a wink, Ray took Hazel’s hand and started leading her into a flourishing dance step, wide enough to be effective in distracting all around them, but confined enough to not bump the surrounding desks. They didn’t stick to dancing for long, soon turning their attention to picking up pieces of paper from the desks of their horror-stricken classmates and started tossing them in the air like confetti.

She chuckled at the sounds of her classmates as they quietly gasp and struggle to look in other directions, away from the two condemned. They weren’t done yet; now running to opposite sides of the classroom, Ray loosely crumpled up a scratch piece of paper, called out “Catch!” and threw it to Hazel. She heard a muffled laugh behind her as she caught it, and turning slightly, caught a glimpse of Cry watching with open amusement, holding a hand to his mouth in an attempt to muffle his laughter.

To be fair, it was a rather amusing scene; Hazel and Ray running around and causing mayhem for their poor unsuspecting classmates, who seemed intent on staring a hole into the desk in front of them. Some of the Grumps looked like they wanted to join in on the laughter or the mayhem, but were too afraid of going against the rules. Ryan was so engrossed with his own lesson that he was still somehow oblivious to what was happening behind him as he wrote furiously on the board, which made things even more hilarious.

Hazel caught Mark’s eye once, and immediately wished that she hadn’t. She was mainly doing this for Ray’s sake, thinking that he had a right to get some payback for being ignored ever since the semester began, but she had nothing against anyone, least of all Mark. And just that one time he looked up at her with such a pitiful stare, almost a look of pleading for her to stop. He watched as Ray strolled past his desk, suddenly frowning as a dark expression entered his face, and his eyes narrowed. He finally looked down and started taking notes again, an ice-cold expression over his features.

Hazel couldn’t understand the expression, but it tore at her heart nonetheless. She was almost tempted to ask Ray if they could stop, but he also seemed to be having so much fun, actually smiling in class for once, that she couldn’t make herself ask.

Cry’s laughter slowly grew louder as they skipped around the classroom, still taking                                 paper and throwing it, to the point that no one was really paying attention to the lecture anymore. Hazel felt heat crawling up her back, into her cheeks, but she smiled and started giggling too. She wondered vaguely if Shan would reprimand her or congratulate her when they got home.

“How rude, I’m trying to teach you how to have a good time, and you laugh at me,” Ray said in a false chastising tone.

Before Hazel could answer back in a teasing tone of her own, Michael exploded from his end of the classroom. “For fucks sake, shut up! What are you laughing at, Cry? Are you laughing at NOTHING?!” Beside him, Lindsay tried to calm him down, but to no avail. “No, shut up Lindsay! He’s interrupting class! Mark, do something!”

Mark muttered that there was nothing he could do, not looking up from his notes again. It wasn’t like him to not take his class duties seriously, making Hazel wonder briefly what was going through his head.

Meanwhile, Cry replied “Yes, sometimes I laugh at nothing. I wonder what has you so upset, though.” Michael’s face grew red with anger, and Cry laughed even harder, to the point that an occasional tear would escape from his eyes.

Shan sighed from her seat. “Honestly Michael, you take everything so seriously!” She smirked over at him, showing that she was ultimately on Cry’s side, and then said “Can’t a guy laugh a little without you making a scene?”

“As a fellow member of the tactics team, I would have thought that you would back me up on this,” Michael challenged. There was a different kind of fury rising, and soon he and Shan were shooting words back and forth as if forgetting that they were still in class. Hazel was surprised, it was unlike Shan to raise her voice, least of all during one of Ryan’s lectures.

Hazel stopped where she was and watched as her sister started pointing a finger furiously at Michael; Ray was still running in between the rows of desks, with classmates trying and failing to keep their eyes on their desk, Cry was laughing so hard he sounded like he would keel over from a lack of oxygen, and Shan and Michael were trading insults and yelling at each other as if they were ready to physically fight at any moment.

Finally, the commotion got to the point that Ryan finally turned his back to the chalkboard and gasped at the chaos in front of him. “WH-what the? Enough! You two quit arguing- hey, calm down, would you Cry- what on earth are you… ENOUGH!!!” he roared at last. “Anyone that’s making a fuss in this classroom should go to the library and sort themselves out NOW!!” Ryan looked so genuinely angry that Ray and Hazel realized that he was indirectly addressing them and waltzed their way out of the room toward the auxiliary library immediately, leaving behind the pandemonium that they had caused.

They were laughing uncontrollably by the time they reached the library, startling Mr. Ramsey as they ran in. He smiled at them both. “Up to no good, I take it? Glad to see you guys can still smile considering the circumstances.”

Hazel’s smile faded as she looked at the librarian in awe. “You’re allowed to talk to us?”

Mr. Ramsey shrugged. “I’m not currently affiliated with anyone in KM. In other words, I’m safe; I’m not bound to the class rules like your classmates are.”

“I didn’t know that’s how it worked,” Hazel muttered to herself, then more audibly she asked “I thought you said that you used to be in our class, years ago. I thought that still would count as class affiliation.”

Ray raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you were in KM, Mr. Ramsey. You never mentioned anything to me about it, after all the times I’ve been in here.”

His blue eyes seemed to soften a little, and he answered in a pained tone. “It’s not something that I like to remember.” Then, regaining himself, he said “But then again, not many people ask about my experiences. Usually better that way, but… I guess if you had any questions, I’m a good person to ask.”

“Well, that sounds like an invitation if I ever heard one,” Ray responded, finding a table near the information desk and sitting down. “Hazel, asking questions is your expertise. Fire away.”

Hazel shot the dark-haired boy a dirty look but then turned her attention to Mr. Ramsey. “Do you know anything about the curse that isn’t really general knowledge? Like things that you could only know from careful research, things like that?”

The librarian sighed, as if he had expected the question. “To be honest, I don’t think ‘curse’ is the right word for it; it’s easier for you students to understand it if explained that way, but take it from me, once you move beyond the pain of losing someone to the class, you realize that there is no actual spite behind the deaths. It’s actually more like a giant accident.”

Ray stiffened at those words. “How could you say that, people are dying, a lot of them! This isn’t a coincidence!” he lashed out, starting to become angry.

Mr. Ramsey held up his hands, not becoming angry himself, only resigned to understanding. “I know how that must sound, and that fact stings right now since you’ve lost classmates, people that you see every day. You may have even lost family,” Ray’s face dropped into a solemn mask, and Hazel knew he was thinking of… “-but listen to what I’m saying. Those kids never meant for this to happen, neither do the dead students know who or what they are; they certainly don’t want this either.”

“The kids? You don’t mean… the rumors were true, weren’t they, the story of Ray’s friends? They did something to try to contact him?” Hazel asked.

“Well first, the Rei that died all those years ago was a girl. Her full name was Reina, and Rei just became a loving nickname given to her by some beloved friends. And yes, the rumors are true. After Rei was killed due to a mugging gone wrong, her friends were so distraught that one night, they snuck into the KM classroom. There were at least five, no more than seven, and they lit candles around the room and set up something that they thought would allow them to communicate with the dead; specifically, to communicate with Rei.”

“Like a… Ouija board?”

“Something similar, yes, but a bit different too. You see, they weren’t trying to just talk with her, they wanted to _bring her back_. They didn’t fully understand what they were getting into, but they tried several times that night to bring the poor girl back into this realm, in any form they could manage. They succeeded, in part. Everyone thought that they were in denial when they insisted that they could see her, but…”

“They actually could see her then, it worked.”

“Like I said, in part. They brought her back into existence, but in a form that only they could see. The others in the class, and eventually the rest of the school went along with them, as they claim they didn’t want to hurt the students any more than they already were. Every now and then, though, someone outside of that circle of friends could perceive her presence, just barely. And then, it became more frequent. I think that the more they pretended to believe, the stronger her influence became over the class. Pretty soon, they probably could actually see her fully too, though no one has ever admitted to _that_.” Mr. Ramsey paused to take a deep breath, giving Hazel a chance to ask more questions.

“Were there any deaths that first year?” Ray leaned forward in interest as Hazel asked her questions.

“No. For that first year, there were no deaths apparent, but- and this is where my research goes a bit hazy- but there were strange disappearances. Three of the original group that performed the ritual, they disappeared without a trace in the middle of the semester. They were never found. I tried digging as deep as I could, but I couldn’t find any more information on them, they literally vanished without a trace. I want to assume that they were the actual first deaths, but without any proof I can’t say that for certain. The deaths began after that year.”

“At first, everyone thought that it was just a sad and strange coincidence. But as the years went on, people in KM started seeing a pattern of death, particularly the teacher of that class, who retained that job until his own death due to the ‘curse’. He died during my class year in KM.”

“Wait… He was your teacher? Is that how you found most of this out?”

“Yes. He was the teacher of my class, and we learned a lot about the curse from him; he had seen so much, and had so many theories, that usually the tactics leaders every semester would consult with him heavily before they made any lasting decisions. He was their tactic, he was _our_ tactic that year, and when we lost him in the fire, it was the worst thing that could have happened in our year.”

Hazel opened her mouth to ask about the fire, but the look that she received from Mr. Ramsey paired with the disapproving shake of his head stopped her. “I know what you’re thinking. That’s a whole different topic; one I would like to avoid if I can.” Hazel nodded in understanding, and he continued. “All I can say about his death is that we almost gave up hope when he passed. The school found some poor replacement teacher who just barely lasted until the end of the second semester, and afterwards lost her mind. Or so I’ve heard, I never came into contact with her again, and the next year there was a new teacher in KM.”

“So is there no real way to stop the curse once it begins, because it sounds like it isn’t possible.”

Mr. Ramsey paused, thinking deeply before making a response. “…It would seem not. I don’t remember much but… I think it _did_ stop midyear, when I was in KM.”

He stopped talking so long that it was Ray who urged him on. “Mr. Ramsey, please. If you can remember anything that might help us, please tell us. We need all the help we can get right now.”

Ray’s voice shook him out of his revelry and he responded “Yes, of course. I just… I really don’t remember much. If I do… I’ll make sure to let Mark know. Yes, I’ve been telling Mark anything I could think of to help. It’s his call in the end, but he’s been listening to me thus far.”

“Ah, so the invisible student tactic was your idea then.”

“No, that’s been a general KM tactic since before even my year. I think most years use it because it gives the class at least half a chance at avoiding the deaths.” Noticing their curious gazes, he explained. “My teacher told the tactics team about the invisible student tactic because it had been used the past four years, and three out of the four years, it worked. It also worked most of the time after my class. Why it failed that fourth year is still inconclusive, though I suspect that the class rules weren’t being upheld properly by the whole class.”

“You mean like now?” Hazel asked miserably, and Mr. Ramsey’s blue eyes flashed in surprise.

“Hazel, no. You misunderstand me, it wasn’t your fault that you didn’t know what was happening in the class. It was a matter of circumstances, if anything.” His face slowly crumbled into something close to defeat. “…It failed during my year, too. Obviously, the deaths had begun at some point.”

Hazel wanted to ask, but she saw the absolute pain and guilt in Mr. Ramsey’s face, so she stayed quiet. However, Ray was becoming more and more enthralled by the new rush of information, and he demanded more. “Why, what happened during your year? You were there, you must have seen something.”

The younger Thomas gripped his shoulder and said quietly “I think that’s enough today, we should go get lunch, Ray.” But Ray didn’t want to let go.

“Mr. Ramsey, please.”

“Ray, let’s leave him alone, he’s said enough for now-”

“Please, I have to know!” Ray pleaded, sudden desperation coloring his tone. Hazel knew that he was thinking about his dad again, but she couldn’t let him torture himself and Mr. Ramsey in the process.

“Come on, Ray, we’ll come back after we eat. Do you want anything, Mr. Ramsey? We can get you something if you like,” she offered, feeling terrible for putting the man through reliving what must have been hell for him. When he silently shook his head, Hazel started pulling Ray by his hand to leave the library, toward the building of the exit. She hoped some fresh air would help him (plus, getting food off-campus sounded great at the moment).

But Ray refused to budge once they were in the hallway, he just squeezed her hand tightly as if it was reflexive only. Hazel looked up into his face and saw how close to breaking down he was. A wave of sympathy washed over her and she squeezed back, not saying anything at first and hoping that the gesture would be enough to help somehow.

It wasn’t his intention to show anything close to grief, especially not in public, but Hazel understood that he was probably holding in feelings more than was healthy for him. Instead of embarrassing him by asking if he was okay, she gently admonished him to show her the diner that she had heard about from Shan and Suzy. Soon, the duo was walking silently toward the exit to the building, still holding hands like it was their only lifeline.

Before they stepped out of sight of their classroom door, Hazel thought that she heard a door slam behind her. But convincing herself that it was all in her head, she continued down the staircase with Ray.


	10. Midnight Emergency

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

“Can you hurry up and decide what to order? I’d like to eat sometime this century,” Ray sighed in impatience as Hazel browsed the menu in front of her.

Hazel huffed. “I’ll have you know that I’ve worked in restaurants before, so I know how to behave. It’s you that I’m worried about!”

“We’re in a fucking diner, what is there to worry about? This isn’t some fancy pants restaurant.”

Hazel swallowed back a wave of irritation and instead muttered “Now I’m even more worried.” Nevertheless, she decided upon an order and after the waitress came back with their drinks, they were both able to place an order in a timely manner.

There was a beat of silence once the waitress left, which was finally broken by Hazel asking “You feeling okay now?”

Ray frowned. “Yeah, I’m fine. I… didn’t expect that. Mr. Ramsey must think I’m a real ass.”

“You are,” Hazel giggled. “But it’s okay; you were personally affected, it’s no wonder you want to find a way to end it.” Now it was Hazel’s turn to frown. “I can’t even imagine how it feels. If something happened to Shan, I think I would lose it. You went straight back to school after… You were really brave.”

Then something clicked in Hazel’s brain and a look of terror overtook her features. “Once, during my first week here, Michael was asking me about Shan getting sick last year. No wonder, he must have thought… But it couldn’t be!”

Ray furrowed his brow. “What are you talking about?”

“W-well, technically Shan was supposed to be attending Kennewick last year; she got into KM then too. She got sick before orientation and couldn’t attend, but decided to wait for me so that we could both go together. You don’t think, she might be…”

He shook his head. “No, Hazel. I’m almost positive that whoever the dead student is, it isn’t your sister.”

“You’re only saying that to make me feel better. But it looks really bad, doesn’t it? And if my memories have been changed, then I would never even know! I can’t remember it very well either! What if-”

She was cut short by the waitress coming back with their meals and telling them to please take their time. All Ray said in response was “Stop worrying, it’s not her. I can prove it.” Then, avoiding the many questions coming from across the table, he said “So, this is where the Spook Crew comes to hang out? Damn, sounds like fun. Wish I could go.”

“Yeah, me too,” Hazel said, both giving up on getting Ray to answer any questions, and remembering with regret the scary story club that Shan and Suzy had started. It was becoming a hit in their class, but she had never gotten to attend either. Now she probably never would…

Ray grinned. “How about we make that part two of our revenge? We just come in later when the group is here and sit in the booth behind them or something.”

“I don’t know about that. I think we caused enough trouble already,” Hazel replied, remembering the icy look on Mark’s face.

The dark-haired boy huffed in response. “You’re no fun,” he complained, but dropped the subject after that. After paying for their meals and leaving a tip, the duo stood to leave. “I guess we should get back to class, huh?”

Surprisingly, Hazel shook her head. “Nah, I don’t feel like it. And Shan said that whenever I feel like missing, she would get my homework for me. So I think I won’t go back today. Besides, Ryan didn’t look too pleased with us.”

“Hey, you think she can pick up my homework too?” Ray joked. “Alright, well if you’re not going back, then neither am I. Boring. So, back to the library then?”

“I don’t know about that, maybe we should give Mr. Ramsey some space. Where else could we go, though?”

Ray shrugged. “If you don’t mind my crazy mother, we could go to my place. You might get to see her painting something new.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

When they made their way up to Ray’s apartment area, Hazel saw that Ray was right; his mother was home. And since they had never met before, Hazel found herself feeling nervous. The woman had very dark hair, like her son’s, although she sported more of a tan than Ray. Her hair was tied back and her clothes had splashes of paint in a few places. She was leaning against the kitchen counter when they walked in. “Ray, you’re back early. Oh, a new friend?” she asked kindly, smiling at Hazel with interest sparkling in her dark brown eyes.

Hazel found herself blushing, and said “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Narvaez. I’m Hazel!”

“She’s in my class. Hey mom, are you painting anything new? Hazel here is a big fan of your work.”

Mrs. Narvaez’s demeanor immediately changed from slight interest to full-blown excitement. “Oh, yes! I’m painting right now in fact, I just stopped for a quick break just now! Come, come!” With that, she grabbed Hazel’s hand and practically yanked her further into the apartment, toward a room at the end of the hallway. “I just love to paint, it’s so much fun! I’m glad that you like my paintings! Which one is your favorite? Probably _Room of Deceit_ , that’s always the most popular one. Oh here, look what I’m working on now, it’s going to be my greatest work yet!” she talked on and on, her tone rushed in her excitement, not allowing much room for Hazel to speak herself. The younger Thomas glanced back only to see Ray watching on with an amused smirk.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Shan was leaning on the hood of her car, tapping her foot in impatience, when Hazel finally ran up to her from across the parking lot. It was well after class, and it seemed that she had been waiting for a while, as she was shivering furiously. “What are you doing, why didn’t you wait in the car? You could have turned the heat on to stay warm!” Hazel cried as she got closer.

Shan frowned, crossing her arms stubbornly. “I’m fine, it’s just a little brisk out.” After they both got into the vehicle, she said “Man, it’s been unnaturally cold lately. It shouldn’t be this bad for at least another month! Sometimes I really hate the weather.”

“Do you think it’s cold enough to snow or anything?” Hazel asked, rubbing her hands together.

“Maybe. I wouldn’t be surprised. And it’s supposed to rain tonight too, so I’m almost positive that it will freeze overnight. We’re gonna have to be careful driving tomorrow.” Then after a pause, Shan asked “So where were you, you weren’t in the library like you usually were. Cry was looking for you, and I think it made him worry when he couldn’t find you.”

“He shouldn’t be looking for someone that doesn’t exist. I thought I already talked to him about that.”

“Yeah, he knows that, but has it ever stopped him before? He just likes being around you, I think. Not that I can blame him, we are kind of awesome to be around,” Shan chuckled. “But hey, as long as you were safe, it doesn’t matter.”

“I was at Ray’s place again. His mom likes it when I come over so that she has someone to talk to while she paints. Says she wishes Ray was into art like I am,” she chuckled. “She’s almost done with her latest piece. Made me wish I was that talented.”

“I see… That explains why Mark was so sour when he came back to class. He’s been a bit down lately, I think,” Shan said with a laugh. “Poor guy. I still can’t believe what you guys did in class last month. Nobody knew what to do, and did you see Michael’s face? Priceless! Hell, you even managed to get a rise out of Ryan, and that’s pretty tough to do.” Shan sighed. “I’m not supposed to support that kind of behavior, but I can’t help it when you’re concerned. But I think that Cry would explode from laughing too much if it happened again.”

“Thanks for sticking up for me… Kind of.”

“Yeah, well, I’m your sister, I’ll always be on your side! You would do the same in my place.”

Once safely inside their apartment, Hazel said “Oh yeah, there’s a Spook Crew meeting at the diner tonight, right? Are you going?”

“Nah, not in the mood to hang out today. Suzy can conduct the meeting just fine without me. Besides, I thought a scary movie night would be fun! You can invite Ray, if you want.” Shan offered, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, then laughing immediately after.

Hazel huffed, her face flushed upon implication. “You’re horrible! He’s probably busy, and anyway, what’s the point of there being three of us, you weirdo?!”

Shan merely shrugged. “Alright, fine, never mind. I was kidding anyway. Here, throw my coat in my room while I start the popcorn and pick a movie!”

As Hazel reached her hand out to take her sister’s coat, their hands brushed, and her blood started to run cold. “Your… hands,” she muttered, her eyes growing wide and threatening to spill over in sudden tears.

Shan noticed the look on her sister’s face and became concerned. “Hazel, what’s wrong? You look upset! Hey, I didn’t mean to tease you about Ray, okay? It’s your own business.”

She shook her head. “Your hands, they’re… cold.”

“Yeah, so? I’m anemic, silly, my hands are always cold. And this weather outside sure doesn’t help.”

The fear she felt left her heart just as quickly as it came, and she breathed a sigh of relief, laughing a little. “Yeah, of course that’s why. I wasn’t thinking.”

Shan raised an eyebrow. “Okay little one, if this is a ploy to get out of putting my coat away, it ain’t workin’. Get to it! I hope you like popcorn for dinner!”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

It was nearing midnight and they were in the middle of a classic horror movie, though now that they were older they were more likely to make fun of the movie instead of being afraid of it. Hazel still couldn’t shake the suspicion she had over the mysterious circumstances of her sister’s illness last year. Finally deciding that it was better to bring it out in the open instead of wondering, she said “Hey, you remember getting sick last year?”

Shan shrugged, not taking her eyes away from the television. “Yeah, of course. It was the first time I feared for my life. Over a stupid stomach flu, I swear those doctors were on something, it felt worse than the flu.” She was silent for a moment, and then asked with a hint of suspicion “Why?”

“I was just remembering it, and I couldn’t really remember much from around that time, so-”

“So, what are you getting at, exactly?” The suspicion was apparent now, and she faced away from the TV to look at her sister with a warning look.

“Look, I was just saying…”

“Oh god, you and Michael are something else!” Shan finally snapped. “So now that you have the curse all figured out, you think you can pin me as the extra? Well it’s not me, since I can remember everything from that time as clear as if it were yesterday. You’re doubting me too, well fine I don’t need anyone to believe me anyway! But the dead student is _not_ me!”

“Fine, sorry I brought it up, I just wanted to clarify things, but since you’re going to be sensitive about it, never mind.”

“Sensitive? I think you would be pretty sensitive too if someone was saying you weren’t supposed to be alive. And my own sister, I thought of all people, you would never doubt me,” she sounded disappointed. “Guess I was wrong. Hey Hazel, maybe it’s _you_ , huh? You got sick at the beginning of the year, had to miss two weeks. Maybe the reason that the curse didn’t start earlier is because we didn’t have an extra student until you came in.”

Hazel’s jaw dropped in shock. “I’m not-”

“I know, I’m just proving a point! Why do you think Michael was so suspicious of you when he met you? And don’t forget who stood up for you then.” Shan pouted. After another moment of silence, she added “Hey, whatever, I guess I can’t be mad, even I doubted myself at first. But I know that I’m alive, so just trust me, okay? And don’t tell anyone else about that story; the whole tactics team already knows, but Mark swore them to secrecy. I don’t want any more suspicions.”

“I’m sorry. I really didn’t think it was you, it just scared me to think about it. I had to say something, it wouldn’t have been fair not too.”

Their conversation was interrupted by Shan’s phone buzzing loudly next to her on the couch. Hazel shook her head and said “Is that Ryan again? You two are so weird, and I thought you said bye to him like an hour ago.”

Shan stared at the number on her screen. “It’s not Ryan… It’s Mark. Shit, something must have happened, why else would he call?” She promptly answered the phone. “Hello? Mark, what’s up? ...Wait, I don’t… what? I don’t understand. Oh… Holy shit, that’s bad. How bad? Yeah, I’ll meet you there. Bye.” She hung up and looked at Hazel with a worried look. “I gotta go.”

“What the hell happened? Did someone else…?”

“Yeah, we think so. Marzia was driving around, don’t ask me why the hell she was out at this time of night, but her car slid from the slick roads… She was in a really bad accident. I guess Cry was her emergency contact, and he called Mark, and now Mark wants the team at the hospital to, I don’t know, strategize? See if she’s okay or not, and talk things through, something, hell I don’t even know. But I’d better get down there with the others; we have to be together on this.”

Hazel shivered involuntarily. “Oh god, I hope she’s okay… We weren’t really friends, but I don’t want anything bad to happen to her. Hey, if you’re gonna be driving, be careful out there. Don’t drive like a maniac.”

 Shan shook her head with a smile. “Do I ever? I’ll be fine. Call you when I get there, not sure how long I’ll be though, so don’t wait up.” And with that, she departed into the steady pour of freezing rain outside.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

News broke about Marzia’s death the next day. When everyone gathered in the classroom that morning, it was deathly silent, just like it had been for the previous two deaths. Ryan stood by the side as Mark made his way to the front of the classroom.

“Some of you may have already heard the news, so I will make this brief, for anyone who didn’t hear about what happened last night,” he looked specifically at Ray as he spoke. “Around midnight of last night, Marzia was driving around in the rain; she was headed for the airport. You all know that she was planning a trip to visit family for a few weeks, back in Italy.” Some murmurs of concurrence were heard. “You may also have noticed how cold and rainy it was around that time. It was dark, foggy, slippery… it was a night with an accident in the making. And that’s exactly what happened. While she was driving to the airport, her car hit some black ice and she slid far into an intersection with oncoming traffic. It was bad, and a lot of people got hurt. They rushed her and others to a nearby hospital, but she didn’t make it through.”

“I know that this may be hard to hear, especially in light of our other losses, but that is why now, more than ever, we need to pull together as one. That brings me to my other announcement for the morning,” he now turned a softer gaze to Hazel. “As of now, we are seeking a new line of tactics, working close with a tactical expert that knows our class’s situation. Because our previous measures have ultimately failed, we no longer see any point in holding to them. We no longer have invisibles in this class.”

“Everyone is free to talk to Ray Narvaez and Hazel Thomas, starting now. I want to welcome both of you back into our class, and thank you sincerely from my heart for being patient when we put this burden on you. Thank you both so much for not giving up when it would have been easy, and for supporting our decision; I know it must have been hard on you.” Mark looked genuinely upset, the way that Ray had in the hallway the other day, and Hazel felt another pang at heart. He looked so near to tears that when he finally ended the announcements and fled back to his seat, Hazel was convinced that he _was_ crying, keeping his head turned so the others wouldn’t see.

Hazel felt a hand at her shoulder and when she turned, saw Cry in the seat that Jordan usually occupied. His usually bright blue eyes were dull and reddened, but he smiled nevertheless at her, in encouragement. He was glad the tactic was over.

Because of the sensitive nature of the day, Ryan gave the class an early break, saying that they would reconvene for an hour and then leave for home early. Cry and Hazel headed for the library together like usual, leaving Shan for her typical tactics meeting. On their way out, Mark caught her by the arm.

Puzzled, the duo turned to look at him as they entered the hallway. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Mark chuckled. “Um, I wanted to ask a favor. After class, the team is meeting at my place to brainstorm some new tactics. The problem is, we’re exhausted. I was hoping you would be willing to attend just one of our meetings. We could use a new perspective. Uh, do you mind? I’d really appreciate it.”

Hazel and Cry looked at each other, with Cry giving a shrug of indifference. Looking back to Mark (who had the sense to finally drop his hold on her arm) and said “Yeah, I’ll go. Is anyone else going too, like Cry or Ray?”

It was just for a fraction of a second, but Hazel thought she saw Mark’s expression shift. Then he was back to normal, making Hazel believe she had imagined it. “Ah, sure, if you think that’s a good idea. I’ll see if anyone else wants to go.” He nodded at the duo in parting and went back to his team. Hazel and Cry continued on their way to the library, as was their original plan.


	11. Digging Deeper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

Hazel and Shan were the first two to arrive at Mark’s place after class. “You’re sure this is the place?” Hazel asked, looking at her surroundings. It was a nice house in a suburban neighborhood, not looking too expensive but definitely not something that a college student working at a sushi restaurant could afford.

Shan shrugged. “This was the address he gave me. He should be here already, since he left before us. I’ll give him a quick call to let him know we’re out here.” Before she could even pull her phone out to call, Mark came out of the house, grinning from ear to ear.

“Hey, guys! Come on in, no one else is here yet.” He ushered the two through the door quickly, asking “So do you guys want a drink or anything? Water, soda, juice, we have a lot of options.”

Shan giggled. “So eager to please. I like it. But nothing right now, thanks.” Hazel also declined the offer, and Mark led the two into what looked to be the living room.

“I’m not sure how long everyone will be here, so I ordered a pizza,” Mark chattered on. “I didn’t really know what to get so I just ordered-”

“Mark, any pizza would be fine, because people can’t complain about free food,” Shan pointed out. There was a knock at the door, to which Mark excused himself to answer it. Minutes later he returned with Michael and Lindsay in tow.

Lindsay smiled when she saw Hazel. “Hey, I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever!” she exclaimed as she reached over for a hug.

Hazel couldn’t help but say “That’s because you haven’t,” before quickly adding “Not that it was your fault!” in order to avoid hurting Lindsay’s feelings.

Lindsay’s smile faltered a little, but she replied “Yeah, I know it must have been tough. I hated having to ignore you… I can’t imagine what I would have done in your place.”

“Mark, where the hell is everyone? Sean and Richard aren’t here?” Michael asked, looking around. “And who else did you invite? We don’t need a lot of outsiders sitting in on the meeting.”

Mark frowned. “No one is an outsider, we’re all in the same class and in the same situation. I only asked a few people, and of everyone I think only Hazel, Suzy, and Arin are coming. Regardless, as the tactics leader I get to decide who can and can’t attend, okay?”

Michael turned a faint shade of red and muttered something like “I didn’t mean it like that,” before becoming silent, merely standing next to Lindsay as he awaited the others’ arrival. Mark was soon called away again by another knock at the door.

“Well said, Mark!” Shan agreed, before turning to Hazel and whispering “Don’t mind him, he says things sometimes. I don’t think he meant anything bad, he’s just an idiot.”

“Hey!” Michael cried out in surprise and some anger. “I resent that!”

“So what else is new?” Shan quipped with a roll of her eyes. As usual, that became the beginning of a new argument, and while those two continued a row of their own, Lindsay motioned for Hazel to move closer.

“I’m sorry,” Lindsay said before Hazel had a chance to say anything. She stared at Hazel as if expecting some sort of response.

“You have nothing to apologize for, if this is for what I think it is,” Hazel insisted. “I’d actually rather people didn’t bring it up; nobody was to blame for it, not anyone on tactics. Okay?” She shot an encouraging smile at her friend.

Lindsay hesitated, looking unsure, but returned the smile. “Thanks. I just still feel really bad for not standing up for you. I should have been braver than that. I won’t mention it anymore, though, if you don’t want me to.”

Mark finally returned to the living room with the remaining four arrivals, all having apparently reached the house at similar times. “Okay, everyone make yourselves comfortable, we have a long meeting ahead of us, I’m afraid.” Mark spoke gravely as the occupants of the room sat on the couch and surrounding chairs. Their host took the center floor (quite literally) and looked at each one of them in turn. Hazel observed everyone in the room; aside from Suzy, who seemed excited to be sitting in on the meeting, everyone wore a somber expression as they waited for the consultation to get under way. “Everyone’s here, so let’s begin.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Hazel ran her fingers through her hair for the tenth time in that hour alone. They had been at this for a while, and with no real solutions coming forth. Everyone was starting to get agitated, and if it wasn’t for their pizza break twenty minutes into the session, she was sure that everyone would have left.

“I still think that we gave up on the invisibles tactic too soon,” Michael stated bluntly, earning a deathly look from Shan.

“Michael,” Mark said, warning in his tone. “We all talked about this before. It does no good to hold onto a tactic that isn’t working. There was another death, hence it didn’t work. It’s over.”

Lindsay glanced over at Hazel, a look of embarrassment on her face, as if apologizing for Michael’s words. Michael bit the inside of his cheek before deciding that he couldn’t keep quiet and continued “How do we know?”

“What?”

“How do we know that it wasn’t working? You act as if any death is a part of the curse, when that might not be the case. Maybe Marzia’s accident really was just an accident and not a side effect of this stupid curse on our class. We should have held out a little longer-”

“Until when, Michael? Until someone else died and then we’d still be having this conversation? After we lose another classmate or another family member and then everyone wonders why we didn’t give it up and find another way sooner? Sounds like a terrible idea,” Mark reprimanded.

Sean jumped in to help Mark. “Yeah, what the hell is your problem? We have to act on the safe side and not make any dangerous presumptions, that’s the whole point of our team! Harping on the past isn’t going to protect us; and we need _new_ ideas, and fast!”

Richard finally spoke up and countered with “Michael has a point; we always assume that someone’s death isn’t the result of a genuine accident, but let’s look at the facts for a moment; it was rainy and cold, foggy, low visibility with high chances of sliding. Marzia was driving at midnight, which makes visibility even lower when combined with the fog. This was an accident waiting to happen. The other deaths were improbable and ridiculous; hers was not. We can’t rule out the possibility that she was not a part of our class curse.”

“But that still doesn’t mean we keep the same tactic! It has always had a fifty percent chance of not working at all, so we have to move on from it. Better safe than sorry,” Mark finished, and that was the end of that discussion. It didn’t stop Michael from glaring daggers at Hazel as if this were somehow all her fault.

Suzy raised her hand. “What if you guys contacted some former students of the tactics team from before, or past students closely associated with them? They might be able to help you guys find a new tactic or something.”

Mark nodded appreciatively. “That’s a good idea, Suzy. We do have contact with a past leader of tactics, but maybe looking for others would be a good idea.”

Shan interjected with “You guys need to ask Ryan about his class experiences. I know that he doesn’t like to talk about them, but I just get the feeling that he’s holding something back. We need the help of as many people as we can contact, and I think that he would be a great start.”

Mark nodded. “Good idea; Geoff and I will have a word with him tomorrow, maybe.”

As if on cue, the sound of someone unlocking the front door and walking into the entrance hall could be heard. Hazel didn’t know who to expect and became suddenly still. Moments later, Mr. Ramsey walked into the living room, looking around him as he did. “Ah, I see the meeting is running a bit long.”

Mark sighed. “Geoff, if you don’t mind sitting in for a few minutes, I would appreciate it.”

Mr. Ramsey gave him a small but fond smile. “Sure, I guess the situation calls for two tactics leaders right now.”

“You were the tactics leader of your class, Mr. Ramsey?” Shan asked with wide eyes.

“You used to be in KM?” Suzy asked with equal surprise.

“Yes to both of those,” he answered with an amused chuckle. “What have we decided so far?”

“We’ve decided that we have no clue what to do, and we need help,” Sean stated.

“We’re trying to come up with past class members who may have some good ideas if we all put our heads together. Anyone come to mind?” Mark asked.

“Hmm… I suppose that Ryan is the most accessible at the moment, so there’s a start. He might be able to come up with more people to interview too,” Geoff suggested.

Michael groaned in frustration and stood from his seat. “It’s getting really late, and I feel like we’re going nowhere right now. No offense to Mr. Ramsey, but Lindsay and I are gonna get out of here. See you all tomorrow.”

Lindsay stood as Michael spoke, and they waved to everyone from the threshold as they packed up and started to leave. Everyone else followed suit, thinking that it would be better to sleep on things and reconvene later. When it was only the Thomas sisters, Mark, and Mr. Ramsey, the latter said “Sorry to interrupt like that, Mark, I figured you guys would be done already.”

Mark sighed. “It’s fine. You had to come home sometime.”

Shan tilted her head in confusion. “This is your house, Mr. Ramsey?”

“It’s just Geoff after school hours… And yes, this is my home. Notice the pictures of me on the mantel there.” He looked on in amusement as Hazel and Shan both stood to look at the pictures with great interest, both feeling silly that they hadn’t noticed before.

“Hey, Mr… er, Geoff, do you have an old class roster or picture album from your class year? It might help us identify more people to contact,” Shan said, spinning around to turn her back to the pictures, while Hazel still browsed on in curiosity.

“Yeah, I should have a yearbook around here… Well, I call it a yearbook, but it’s more of an unofficial collection of photos.” His brow furrowed. “I don’t really remember where I put it, but I’ll take a look around my room, see if it’s there.”

As he left the room, an audible stomach rumbling noise ensued, causing Shan’s cheeks to flush pink. “I think I have a date with the leftover pizza in the kitchen, be back.”

When it was just the two of them in the room, Mark strolled over to where Hazel was still examining some of Geoff’s pictures. When she noticed him close to her, she smiled. “There’s a really pretty woman in some of these. Do you know who she is?”

Mark looked to where she was pointing and nodded. “Ah, Geoff’s wife. Well, ex I suppose. They met in KM, I think. He doesn’t seem to like talking about her much, so I don’t really ask more than necessary.” He grinned at her. “Though I hear you are the queen of questions, so maybe you can get the story out of him.”

“Oh, shut up. Anyway, I didn’t expect you to be living with Mr. Ramsey.”

Mark forced out a laugh. “Yeah, actually neither did I. When I first enrolled in Kennewick, I was supposed to move into an apartment kinda in between the college and where I’m working. It wasn’t official, but I was so sure I would get it that I didn’t bother finding a backup place to live. But then someone else got the apartment, and I was stuck sleeping in the park for a week. Geoff found out by accident, and said I could stay with him for a while, until I find another place.”

“How very responsible of you,” Hazel teased lightly.

“Hey, I’m very responsible! Just look at me!” he laughed before saying “It wasn’t one of my better plans. But it worked out; that’s how I found out that Geoff was a former tactics leader, and he has helped me a lot since then. I owe him a lot.” There was a long pause while his serene smile slowly dropped in a more dismal expression. “You know, Michael isn’t the only one who thinks we should have kept the invisibles tactic in force.”

“Really? That’s… not good.”

Mark huffed. “Yeah, I know. Just be ready for that, some people might try to put the blame on you. I won’t let them as far as it depends on me, but I think that I’m losing some of my merit, too. They’re starting to think that I’m incompetent.” He laughed without humor before adding “The best part is, most of them didn’t even believe in the damn curse, and now look at everyone. I don’t blame them for being scared, but damn it’s so easy for them to place the blame on others, it’s unbelievable.”

“Don’t listen to them, then. You’re doing a great job; I bet no one has ever cared about the position as much as you, Geoff included.”

Mark let out a short laugh. “Thanks. As long as we have each other’s backs, then nothing else should matter, right?”

Hazel smiled back at him as Geoff and Shan reentered the room (Geoff was empty-handed while Shan held a slice of pizza).

“Right.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

During class Hazel started to really watch her classmates, and noticed with some pain that Mark had been right. No one came out and said it directly, but it was pretty obvious that some people were still looking at her with some distrust, even outright suspicion. Her usual friends didn’t treat her any differently, causing her to not notice the strange looks that used to bother her so much in the beginning.

Minx was practically glaring.

She was interrupted from her thoughts by Ryan announcing the lunch break for class. “Class, before I let you guys go for lunch, I have a quick announcement to make. I… I know that a lot of things have happened so far since class started, and I think that it’s very important for all of us to remember that there is more to life than tragedy… There’s more than… death… in this world.”

“And I want all of us to bond together, as a class. Mark is right; we need to pull together now and be there for each other, and not be disjointed like we have been so far. I am ashamed that I have let this happen to our class, and I want to do something about it. So, to honor the memory of those we have lost, and to remember ourselves that we must live life to the fullest for them, I propose a little field trip, of sorts.”

“This will be a separate field trip from the one that we will be having during the winter break, in January. Instead, next week we will journey to a nearby hiking trail; you may know of it, the Kennewick wildlife park that is only fifteen minutes away. I hear that it’s supposed to be a little chilly next week, so please be sure to dress appropriately.”

“Alright guys, that’s all I wanted to say for now; more details later. See you after break.”

Hazel and Cry stood and met up to head to the library as usual. Ray approached the duo, asking “Mind if I join you guys?” He sounded nonchalant in tone, but looked a little skeptical about asking.

Cry shrugged. “Up to you, Hazel. Doesn’t matter to me.”

While Hazel thought that it was a strange reaction from Cry, she shook it off and said “Yeah, sure. Let’s go.” As they walked to the library together, Hazel almost felt like she had her own posse, especially since her sister had winked deviously at her as they left the classroom. She could have strangled Shan then, but let the irritation pass.

 They spent quite some time at the usual table, chatting about video games or class assignments, when Hazel noticed Mark speed into the room, heading straight for Mr. Ramsey. She left the boys talking at the table and walked closer to the tactics leaders.

“Find anything?” Mark was asking.

“No, it’s so strange. I thought it was in my room, but I can’t find it. Did you see it lying around anywhere?”

“Uh-uh. I looked, though. Maybe you brought it here, left it somewhere?”

“Still looking for your yearbook?” Hazel asked, approaching them finally.

Mr. Ramsey nodded. “I have no idea where it is. Don’t worry about it though, I will make a list of people for you guys to contact.” He turned away to go through some paperwork, leaving Mark to turn away from the front desk with a sigh.

He smiled when he noticed that Hazel was still with him. “Don’t worry about me, okay? I’m fine. I’d better get back to the team soon, I only left to see if Geoff made any progress. Unless you wanted to come with me? We could always use the extra input.” He looked almost hopeful.

Hazel glanced back to where Ray and Cry were sitting. Both boys were still chatting and working on homework. It seemed like they wouldn’t notice if she left briefly. But would she be derailing the meeting? Michael wasn’t happy when she went to the one the day before. She sighed and shook her head. “That’s alright, you guys have a lot to do, and I would just get in the way.”

Mark frowned. “You wouldn’t be in the way at all, we need new opinions. But I don’t want to push our responsibilities onto you.” He forced a smile. “It’s alright.” He was starting to walk to the door again.

Due to a last minute decision on her part, Hazel said “Alright, for a few minutes. If there’s anything that I can do to help, I will. Let’s go!”

Mark locked arms with her and they walked back to the classroom. “So did you guys talk to Ryan already? Is he going to help us more?”

Mark sighed. “He’s still really reluctant. He says he would rather avoid talking about his experiences, but maybe if we work on him a little more, he might come around. It’s hard to say with him, honestly. Maybe Shan can convince him, though I know she’s doing her best now.”

They reached the classroom. Michael’s eyes narrowed upon seeing her with Mark, but he said nothing. That was probably due to the fiery glare that Shan was giving him for looking at her sister so maliciously. They were cut off from reaching the rest of the tactics team, however, by Gavin stepping in their way, a sneer in place.

“You guys are quite chummy all of the sudden. Congratulations, who cares if we all die, as long as you have each other to distract you?”

Mark became uncharacteristically vicious. “Back off, Gavin. I’m not in any mood to deal with you today. Make yourself useful and keep out of my way.”

He immediately backed down as Mark commanded. “Alright, alright, sorry. Everyone’s a little wound up these days. My mistake.” He didn’t sound too sorry at all, but Mark ignored him. Unhooking his arm from Hazel, he headed over to the tactics team, expecting Hazel to follow him.

As Hazel walked past Gavin, she heard him muttering directly to her. “Listen, I really am sorry. I need your help, okay? I’m going to be out of town for the next couple weeks, but when I get back, we need to talk. Meet me at Jay’s Diner exactly two weeks from today, after class. It may be important.”

She didn’t get a chance to answer before he moved past her out of the room. Mark and Shan were looking at her with a question in their eyes. “Were you going to sit in for a few minutes, sis?” Shan called to her.

Hazel thought of Cry and Ray; she had to get back soon. “Yeah, for a few minutes,” she replied, walking over to join them. Michael scoffed audibly next to Shan, who elbowed him hard in the ribs as compensation. They were currently discussing stories and tactics of KM classes of the past.

Soon she was totally engrossed in the conversation of the team, forgetting all about Gavin’s strange invitation, and even Cry and Ray sat forgotten in the library as Hazel’s head swam with stories of past tactics. Stories that would stay with her even after class was long over; stories that would invade her dreams, transform them into nightmarish figures; stories that would haunt her until the end of her days.


	12. Free Fall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

“It’s your fault.”

Hazel blinked at the dark figure in front of her. “What?”

“It’s your fault.” The voice grew louder, angrier. The form shifted to reveal itself; it was Felix, dripping with blood, his mangled body just barely able to stand. There was a hate in his eyes that literally burned her. “I shouldn’t be dead.”

“Neither should I,” a voice spoke behind her. She spun around, terrified, and came face to face with Bob, blood spurting out of his neck and covering her as he struggled to speak. “Why… why did I bother trying to help you? It did no good.”

“N-no, I didn’t mean…” Hazel was struggling to speak, trembling involuntarily. “Please…”

Both men faded away, leaving a lone figure in her field of vision. Marzia. She was the worst of all.

Drenched head to toe in dark, red blood, she stared accusingly at the younger Thomas. “I always knew you would be the death of us.” Light flooded the dim chamber they were in, revealing the remainder of her classmates lying on the floor, broken and lifeless. Her stomach turned as she identified her friends, her sister, everyone was gone…

“No… No please,” her voice raised in pitch as she panicked, backing away from the scene before her. She toppled over one of the bodies and watched in horror as a darkness started to envelope the room again. It was moving steadily toward her, and she couldn’t move… “NOO!”

“It was you all along, it was all your fault.” Different voices spoke, all at once.

She closed her eyes tight and covered her ears, all the while her own name was ringing out like a chant. Hazel, Hazel, Hazel…

Hazel awoke to Shan standing over her bed as she shook her awake. “Hazel, you okay? You were talking in your sleep. It didn’t sound like a good dream.” Before she could answer, the older Thomas smiled and said “Anyway, did you forget what day it is?”

More silence. And then… “Oh, it’s my birthday today!” Hazel squeaked in her excitement. She couldn’t shake the chill from that awful nightmare, but she could be excited about what was happening in the real world. “When am I getting my sushi?”

Shan laughed. “Predictable. We’ll go tonight, obviously. I was thinking we could invite a few people, what do you think? Who would you invite?”

“Hmm,” Hazel had to think about that one. While it was obvious that the usual suspects would be there, she also wanted to widen out and get to know more of her classmates better; despite the fact that some of them might not like her at the moment. “Just you and me could go for the dinner, and then we could invite a lot of people over for an after-party, that way we don’t have to worry about a huge dinner party; trust me, a party that large could really put a strain on the kitchen.”

“Speaking from experience, I guess. Fine, we could do that. We can see if anyone wants to come during today’s Spook Crew meeting; the members vary from day to day, and I think that everyone has been to a meeting at least once. Oh, but you’ve never been to one, have you? Yeah, you’re definitely going today, it’s a lot of fun!”

Hazel cracked a tiny smile. “About time, I wanted to go since the beginning, if circumstances had been different.” Her smile widened as she wondered who would attend today’s meeting. According to Shan, Suzy and Arin always attended, Wade was also a regular, and sometimes Danny, Rose, and Aaron were there… She couldn’t wait to see who would be there for her first meeting.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

The sisters decided to walk to the diner after school instead of driving there. “We probably need the exercise, anyway,” Shan commented as they walked to the Spook Crew meeting.

Hazel nodded, still trying to imagine who would meet up with them there. In class, it seemed like a lot of people that she spoke to were going to be there (minus Cry, who had a job interview that afternoon and couldn’t make it).

On another note, there had been so much chatter about the upcoming hiking trip because it would be happening the next day, and Ryan had announced more details about the hike; they would meet up at the Kennewick wildlife preserve at the time that they usually met for class, would go with binoculars and probably identify as many species as they could (as a mini lesson) and then go home early for the day instead of going back to school.

“Hey, we should probably get hiking boots or something. And a good jacket. What else would we need?” Shan rambled as they crossed the street to the diner, where they already saw class members gathering in a corner of the restaurant.

“Eh, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Hazel responded. She looked around and silently named the people already there. Suzy and Arin, of course… The whole Grumps group was here, actually.

Lindsay waved at her from a corner seat, motioning for Hazel and Shan to sit with her. Michael was nowhere to be seen, but that wasn’t too surprising; he hadn’t seemed like the type to enjoy ghost stories. Rose was there too.

Rose must have seen the questioning look on Hazel’s face as she and Shan settled in their booth, because she smiled and said “Just because Richard doesn’t like this kind of thing doesn’t mean I can’t go on my own, right?”

Hazel had to agree. “Of course not. It’s good to have separate interests anyway!” She really hadn’t talked to Rose much since before she became an invisible, so Hazel wasn’t sure how to talk to her; but she seemed to be nice. Hazel realized with a sigh that she really needed to try making more friends than her immediate group; Maybe Rose would be a good place to start.

Wade was indeed there, sitting with Sean and Aaron in a booth opposite to where they were sitting. He waved weakly at them with a small smile; he’d never really been the same since Bob’s death. Still, he was trying to connect with everyone still, so that was good. And finally, Ray strolled in behind them and sat with Wade’s group… Wait, what?

“Ray? Didn’t think you liked this sort of thing,” Hazel admitted with a raised eyebrow.

Ray shrugged. “Well, you know. Thought it would be a good idea to be more social. My mom heard about this from somewhere actually, and forced me to come. Now, how could she have heard about an after-school activity when she doesn’t go near the college?” He narrowed his eyes at her, causing Hazel to grin sheepishly.

“Yeah… I may have mentioned it a few times when watching her paint… So how is her painting coming along, almost done?” she quickly switched the subject.

“Nice try, I’m still mad. And yes, she finished it. She’s taking a bit of a break from painting for a few days… said something about trying pottery again or something. Anyway, don’t distract me when I’m about to scold you,” Ray said sternly, but she saw a smirk flit across his features, and knew that he was kidding.

“Don’t you scold my sister, asshole! I’ll fight you!” Shan exclaimed, apparently having listened in to their conversation. Hazel hoped she was kidding and silently nudged her in the ribs.

Shan looked around at the adjoining booths and said “Alright, looks like most of us are here. To start off, let’s decide the order of storytelling, and then, announcements. We’ll start the stories and order food, then call it when the owner is ready to kick us out… Agreed?” There was slight laughter going through the group as people nodded in agreement. “Okay, good. Same as always, then. Now who wants to go first?”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

The meeting was starting to wind down, Hazel noticed, as people started to pack up separately and say their goodbyes as they left. The first to leave were Rose and Lindsay, who had to meet up with their respective boyfriends soon. Then Wade and Aaron had to leave, causing Ray and Sean to join Hazel and Shan’s table to save room. Some of the Grumps left, leaving only Suzy and Arin.

As Danny left, he called behind his shoulder “Hey, see you lovely ladies later,” with a wink in the sisters’ direction.

Shan scoffed and called back “Yeah, yeah, get the hell out of here Danny! And good riddance.” Her tone indicated that she was joking, as there wasn’t a hint of seriousness anywhere in her tone. The departing group burst into laughter as they walked through the doors of the diner to leave, and Hazel smiled. No matter what had happened in the past, she was so glad that her sister seemed to have made a nice group of friends. Maybe they could become her friends too, as the year went on.

“Okay, I think it’s safe to say that the story part of the meeting is over,” Suzy commented, leaning over the booth to glance at the remaining people.

“Yeah, I guess so. The one you told was really creepy though, I won’t be getting any sleep tonight, that’s for sure,” Shan commented. “Unless… Hazel, do you mind if I sleep on the floor in your room? I might not be so creeped out if I’m not alone.”

Ray laughed at her. “Wow, you’re such a baby!”

“Oh shut up, Ray. You’re just jealous that I get twenty-four hour access to my sister, and you don’t!” Shan teased, sticking her tongue out at the dark-haired boy.

He raised an eyebrow with a chuckle. “Oh, you’re so right. Also, love how your usual comeback is just to tell people to shut up.”

“Wh- shut up! I mean, just- gah! HUSH!” Shan became flustered after saying shut up again so automatically, causing the remaining group to laugh.

“Oh man, I guess I’d better go too… My homework won’t do itself,” Sean sighed in his Irish accent. “Unless… You want to do it for me?” He looked up hopefully at Shan who just stuck her tongue out at him in response. “Fine, fine, I’ll do it myself. It will just take me forever unless I get working on it now, and I have to work tomorrow straight after school.”

“Excuses, excuses! Do your own work!” Shan quipped back. Then, in a more serious tone, she said “Hey, before you go though… How has Wade been holding up lately? I’m a bit worried about him lately. He’s trying to reach out to all of us, but I don’t know… I’m afraid he’s just going through the motions.”

Sean frowned. “Yeah, I’ve noticed too. Can’t say I blame him, he lost his best friend. They were close, ya’ know? I mean I was friends with Bob too so it hurt, but… They’ve known each other for a while, so I can’t really relate to him that well. Mark and I have been keeping an eye on him, though. He keeps trying, so that’s better than nothing.”

Ray nodded. “Losing someone important to you isn’t just something that you get over in a few days, a few weeks, and even a few months. Sometimes, you just never do. But it’s good that he’s not isolating himself.” Hazel wondered if he was thinking about his father again. “How’s Mark been feeling about it? They were all friends, weren’t they?”

“Yeah, but you know Mark. He’s putting all of his energy into the team, so I don’t think he’s letting himself grieve for anyone just yet. He’s so focused on keeping us all alive, that I’m honestly a little worried about him too. It can’t be healthy, holding yourself responsible for the lives of an entire class.”

“I’ve noticed too. It’s a shame, Mark’s a nice guy. You notice how he’s like two different people during the meetings and outside of them? When he’s in class, he’s just a fun-loving guy that makes a lot of friends. Then, when he operates in the capacity of the tactics team leader, he gets so serious and solemn. It’s necessary, I get it, but I feel bad,” Shan commented, crossing her arms.

Arin and Suzy were whispering back and forth before Arin finally spoke up. “So uh, we didn’t really want to ask anything since it hasn’t been a lot of time, but did you guys ever come up with another tactic? It’s been a few days since we went to that meeting at Mr. Ramsey’s house, and we haven’t heard anything about it since. What happened with that?”

Shan spoke up. “Mark and I approached Ryan about his experiences during his time in KM. He still doesn’t seem willing to talk, but eventually he’s going to have to. We have no choice. Geoff (I mean, Mr. Ramsey) was making a list of people for us to interview, but so far everyone we’ve contacted has refused to get back to us. I mean, they straight up won’t listen. It’s getting to be downright depressing.”

Sean nodded in agreement. “Michael and Richard are getting more and more stressed about it, since they were in charge of making most of the phone calls. I thought that Michael was going to have a stroke or something one day, he looked so mad. Lindsay’s having a rough time of it, too.”

“So, it’s not doing any good, then…” Suzy trailed off. “I thought it was such a good idea,” she chuckled without humor. “But I guess it was just another dead end.”

“No, it was a great suggestion. If it wasn’t for you, I’m pretty sure Michael and Shan would have just argued until the end of time at Mr. Ramsey’s house,” Sean piped up with a reassuring smile. “Nothing to worry about.”

That seemed to comfort her a little bit, and then soon afterward, the remaining people started to leave as well.

Ray offered to walk the sisters back to their car. Shan had a goofy grin on her face as she obviously side-glanced at Hazel before saying “Sure, that’s a great idea!”

Hazel shook her head. “Shut up, Shan.”

The trio walked in silence at first, the quiet only being broken occasionally by Shan chattering to herself about the cold. “I really hope it warms up tomorrow, or I won’t go hiking, Ryan be damned. Oh!” she cried as if just remembering. “We’re going out for sushi in a few hours; it’s Hazel’s birthday. Wanna come with, Ray?”

Ray was silent for a moment. “Hmm, sounds tempting, but nah. My mom and grandmother already think that we’re dating; better not give them more reason to think it.”

Shan huffed. “Well, what’s wrong with that? You two would be cute together,”

“Shan!” Hazel gasped with wide eyes. “Don’t just say things like that to make it awkward!”

Ray laughed. “I didn’t mean that there was anything wrong with the implication. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to make you the third wheel in that case.”

“Oh please, if anything, the third wheel would be _you_ , Narvaez!” Shan exclaimed before adding “Isn’t that right, Hazel?”

“Oh, look, our car!” Hazel said, effectively ignoring her sister (who then puffed out her cheeks in annoyance). “Thanks for walking with us, Ray. Be safe, and tell your mom and grandma I said hello.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Once at the restaurant, Shan started craning her neck in the entranceway. “Isn’t this where Mark works?”

Hazel sighed. “Yeah, but maybe he doesn’t work today…”

She was cut off by a friendly “Well hello there! I didn’t expect to see you guys here!” that sounded just like Mark. She turned to see her friend in uniform, smiling widely at them. “I’m so glad to actually see some friendly faces, it’s busy as hell tonight and seems like everyone has a complaint.”

Hazel winced. “Ugh, I hated that back when I worked for a restaurant. You can never be right, no matter what.”

Mark laughed. “Oh yeah, you were a host, right? I remember you told me that. Anyway, I guess I’d better get back to work; heaven forbid I stop for a minute to talk.”

Once they got to the front host desk, Shan muttered to Hazel “Should I ask if we can sit in his area?”

“No; don’t mess up their rotation!”

Shan pouted “Hmph, fine; but I bet he wouldn’t even have minded.” As it turned out, they were in his section anyway. Shan laughed evilly as he made his way to the table. “Prepare for hell, Mark!”

“Oh stop, I’m sure you guys are great customers.”

“Hazel, maybe, but not me; I didn’t work in a restaurant, so prepare for evil!” Shan was given a scolding look by Hazel and then sighed. “Alright, I’m kidding, of course. Why would I make my friend suffer for real?”

Mark muttered “You dingus,” before asking to take drink orders and rushing off to get them.

While they waited for his return, Shan was obviously deliberating on whether or not she should talk about something. She kept almost bringing up a discussion, only to say “Never mind,” when asked by Hazel what it was. Hazel sighed; she hated it when her sister did this.

“What do you want to talk about, Shan?”

“No, it’s nothing. It’s your day, so we shall eat sushi and be happy!”

“No, if it’s my day then you answer my question. What is it?”

“Hmph, you really are the queen of questions, aren’t you?”

“Gah, Shan! Just what is it?”

“Fine!” Shan finally cried out. “Listen, you remember when you got that weird call from the hospital that you were staying in?”

Hazel paused; they had called her a few times to check on her progress, so she wondered what her sister was getting at. “Yes, I’m aware. I don’t remember getting a ‘weird call’, as you put it.”

Shan huffed. “That day, don’t you remember? Your nurse called to tell you something, and you got so weird about it? Well, I found something out…” She was interrupted by Mark dropping by the table to give them their drinks and take their orders (which was unfortunate, because Shan was terrible at ordering under pressure…) and then going away again.

Hazel waited expectantly for her sister to continue as they sipped at their drinks. “Well? You found something out, what is it?”

Shan sighed. “Look, I can’t really talk about it while Mark is around. We’ll talk tomorrow, okay? After the hike.”

Hazel narrowed her eyes at her sister, but finally backed down; no use ruining the evening (and her appetite) by badgering Shan with questions, no matter how curious she got. “Fine. Then why did you bring it up at all?”

“Oh, you know me; I’m indecisive like that. Don’t I do this all the time?”

With a sigh, “Yes, Shan. Yes, you do.”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

The next morning, after an unsettling, dreamless sleep, Hazel found herself trudging behind her sister as they made their way to the agreed upon path for the class hike. The only people there so far seemed to be Ryan, Jordan, and Mark. Mark smiled and waved as they approached. “Hey guys, over here!”

“Yes, Mark, we see you!” Shan laughed as they approached. “Morning guys! How’s it going?”

Jordan yawned. “Well, you know, I’m awake. That’s gotta count for something.”

Mark replied with “So far so good, I just hope that everyone has a good time on this trip; we could all use a break from being separate and alone.”

Hazel nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I hear you. I just kind of wish it was a bit warmer. But what can you do, the weather is what it is.” A strong gust of wind ruffled everyone’s clothes and hair, as if answering her. “Man, I wish it wasn’t so windy.”

“I hear it’s supposed to actually warm up next week; maybe we could plan another outing for then?” Shan asked.

Ryan shrugged. “Maybe not another official class trip, but an unofficial one, sure. After all, getting our schoolwork done is important, am I right?” His words were met with groans from his students, to which he replied “Hey don’t blame me, I’m a teacher! I _have_ to be excited about class.”

As they were speaking, more people arrived and chatted amongst themselves, until Ryan looked around and said with some confidence “This looks like everyone.”

“What the hell happened to Gavin, he’s not here yet?” Aaron pointed out from the back, having been one of the last in the group to arrive. “Should we wait for him?”

“Nah, he has an excuse; he’s out of town for a family visit. Won’t be back until next week, I think he said. So no point in waiting.” Ryan explained. He looked around at his students with a confident smile. “Before we go, I want to thank you all for putting up the effort of being here today instead of skipping. It’s important that we do things together, we need to learn to trust each other, to be there for each other, no matter what. I like to think that the real point of this class is to network and make strong friendships, ones that will persevere through hardship.”

“Okay, but enough with my rambling, is everyone ready? Alright, then, let’s get going!” The group started up the path, conversing with each other happily as they did so. Everyone had a good feeling about this, it was good to connect. Despite the wind and the slight chill, it was good to be out and amongst friends.

Shan poked her sister in the ribs and said “I’m gonna make it to the top first, just watch!”

“It’s not a race, Shan! Geez,” Hazel sighed, but laughed anyway. She watched as Shan ran ahead to where Ryan was leading the group and started joking around with him too. No doubt about it, she was crushing hard on their teacher, but Ryan didn’t seem to notice or mind at all.

Hazel turned away for a few seconds to chat with Lindsay and Cry, who were on either side of her, Mark and Michael being not too far behind them. Hazel looked forward just in time to see Shan rush off in front of even Ryan, laughing that she could beat him to the top as well.

“You are such a child!” she heard Ryan call to her sister with laughter in his tone. Shan stuck her tongue out at him before dashing around the corner and out of their field of vision.

Still not too worried about it, Hazel noticed that Mark had edged his way into the group, passing Cry to be close to her. “Your sister is full of energy today,” he commented casually.

“Yeah, she gets hyper sometimes. I guess you would know though, after seeing her in tactics meetings and stuff,” Hazel responded. She noticed Mark’s brow furrow and asked “What is it?”

“It sounded like… Don’t you hear that?”

And then she listened. She heard with some horror loud and panicked cries coming from in front of the group. Ryan was already rushing ahead to get to her sister when she and Mark took off after him. “Dammit Shan, why is she so clumsy?” she growled as they rushed ahead to see if she was okay.

As she came into view, Hazel relaxed a bit; Shan had gotten her jacket snagged by a stray branch sticking out of a crevice of the trail. She sighed. “Oh come on, don’t panic, sis.”

Ryan had slowed his gait as well, and as they heard Shan muttering frantically “Nononono I don’t wanna die, please!” he called to her to calm herself and take the jacket off.

Mark still looked worried, though everyone else that had gone running too after hearing Shan had relaxed when Hazel had. “Shan, be careful over there,” he called. “If you pull too hard, you’re going to throw yourself over the edge!”

As he spoke those words, Shan gave one final tug on her arm and ripped free from the branch. Unfortunately, she then lost her balance and started stumbling toward the edge of the path. With a horrified scream, everyone watched in a panic as she pitched over the edge and out of their sight.

It took mere seconds for Hazel to react, but it felt like forever as she ran to the edge and prepared to go down after her, calling her sister’s name in a panic. She felt someone grab hold of her arm with a strong grip and pull her back. Adrenaline made the blood rushing through her ears so loud that she barely heard as Mark yelled “Are you nuts?! Go down the path or you’ll be hurt too!” He turned to yell at everyone behind them, (some of which were screaming in terror) “BACK DOWN THE TRAIL, NOW!!”

The last thing she remembered was Ryan practically pushing past students as he rushed down the path to the bottom again, with Michael and Mark on his heels. They yelled behind them for everyone to be careful going down the path as they went.

Hazel felt someone else grab her hand and turned with tearful, panicked eyes to see Lindsay next to her. As they rushed down the trail together, she kept trying to reassure the terrified sister that Shan was okay, that it wasn’t a far drop, and she was probably bruised and scratched but not seriously hurt.

They both knew it was only wishful thinking.

They spent at least ten, fifteen minutes walking along the bottom of the winding trail, searching through the trees for a glimpse of Shan. Hazel walked on with them numbly, not really comprehending much. Her friends were there with her, trying to keep her hopeful. It wasn’t until Mark stopped everyone and ordered them to go back that she started to tremble.

“Why do we have to go back? We have to find my sister!” Hazel choked out, and seeing the look on Mark’s face, knew instinctively that he must have spotted her somewhere nearby, and it wasn’t good news. “Where?”

“Hazel, go back with everyone, please. Please.”

Hazel pushed past him and saw in the distance a twisted, broken body in between a cluster of trees. The figure wasn’t moving, and she could see the motionless twists of curly hair on her sister’s head, though she couldn’t see her face from the way she was positioned.

She heard Mark call for someone to stay with her while he and Ryan approached the body. When they reached her sister, he gently placed a hand along her hair to move it out of her face. It was only a side profile, but even from that distance she could see the glassy gaze in Shan’s brown eyes. He looked over with such genuine sadness that she broke down and landed on her knees, sobbing. She felt someone kneeling next to her, heard someone’s voice trying to calm her down, but all she could see were her sister’s lifeless eyes in her head, and couldn’t remember anything else.


	13. Breakthrough (Missing You)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

Hazel stared blankly at the television screen in her apartment. It was at least three in the morning, and still she couldn’t sleep.

Cry had nobly offered to stay with her to keep an eye on her for a few days, but was now starting to nod off next to her on the couch. Staying up late every night was taking its toll. Every once in a while he would stand and stretch in an attempt to keep himself awake, but it was failing to work. Finally, in a tiny voice Hazel said “Just get some sleep, Cry. You’ve been up with me all day.”

He shook his head stubbornly. “No, I’m fine, really…” he was cut off by a yawn, and then said “You need to sleep too. How will I be able to sleep, knowing that you’re miserable and awake?”

Hazel didn’t have an answer for him so she just shrugged and went back to trying to focus on the television. She heard Cry sighing next to her, then moments later a light snore as he fell asleep. She probably would have smiled, if she had the energy to do so. It was endearing, having a friend so willing to help her, it really was. But the entire day had been so draining…

Everyday had been a drain since the incident. Her sister had been gone almost a week, and even though she put up a brave face for everyone and went to school like she was supposed to, and attended the Spook Crew meetings every day, some of her friends knew better than to fall for the act.

Ray, for example; though he never pushed her to talk about her sister or the incident, he invited her regularly to paint with his mother, saying that it might be a good way to “get feelings out”.

Suzy and Lindsay always made sure that she had time to talk and got enough attention during the Spook Crew meetings, and besides the extra attention they always made sure that she wasn’t overwhelmed or badgered with questions. She really appreciated their support. Even the few times that Michael showed up (a rare occurrence, it turned out) he never bothered her about Shan, despite how worn out or depressed he was looking these days. It was almost as if he didn’t have the energy to be angry lately.

And then there was Mark, who had helped her through that terrible day and kept an eye on her since; he’d been the one to keep her focused when she had to deal with the doctors and the mortician. He had been there when she finally made the call to her mom, and kept her from completely breaking down from the aftereffects.

Cry was perhaps the most active when it came to watching her, seeing as he was staying with her for the time being, which he offered upon finding out how little sleep she was running on. With a restless sigh, Hazel pulled out the homework that she had been neglecting and started looking it over. It wasn’t long before she followed Cry’s lead and fell asleep leaning against the arm of the sofa.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

_Hazel didn’t have a choice; she had to call her mother and tell her, tell her that her oldest daughter was gone forever. She cried again at the thought of never seeing her sister alive again._

_Mark was nearby, seeing her struggle to gain control of herself. He gently took her hand and brought her into an empty corridor and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He smiled weakly. “Just stay over here for a bit, okay? Maybe being away from everyone will help.” It wouldn’t help, and she knew it, but also knew that he was just trying to help so she nodded silently._

_With trembling hands, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and scrolled down to her mother’s number. She listened to the phone dialing as she tried to calm her erratic breathing. She nearly lost it again when she heard her mom’s voice on the other line. “Hello?”_

_“Mom!” she squeaked, unable to stop tears from slipping down her cheeks. Mark was still with her, though he walked a few steps away, realizing that she needed this conversation to be private._

_On the other end, her mother sounded a little concerned but still matter of fact. “What is it, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”_

_It took a minute for Hazel to compose herself again before choking out the story and bursting into tears. On the other end, she heard a gasp of shock, and then her mother’s voice trembling as she said “How could you?”_

_“Wh-what? Mom…”_

_“It’s all your fault.”_

_Hazel nearly dropped the phone from her hand as her blood ran cold. She couldn’t find her voice quickly enough to respond, and her mother repeated the accusation with more conviction. The younger Thomas looked around the hallway, directly to where Mark had been standing, but he was gone. Her mother’s voice made her jump as it said “Even he would abandon you now. How does it feel, to lose everything? It was your fault anyway.”_

_“Mom, no… please…”_

_She was being surrounded, her classmates and teacher all forming a circle, telling her with venomous tones that everything had been her fault. In the end, the morgue door burst open and her sister hobbled through it on twisted limbs, blood spilling over her lip and out of her eye sockets as she shot an icy glare at her younger sister. “All along you were trying to pass the blame on me, when it was YOU!” Shan flung herself at Hazel with great force, and the collision was eminent…_

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

“-zel? Hazel! Hey, come on, wake up!” Cry’s voice got louder and louder as Hazel came out of her sleep cycle, still whimpering from the nightmare. She glimpsed him through teary, restless eyes and saw him standing over her with his hand on her shoulder, shaking her awake. He wore a troubled expression, eyes wide with worry. But once she opened her eyes to look at him with that dazed look, he sighed in relief and wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a tight hug. He didn’t ask, he didn’t have to; all he said after a while was “It was a bad dream, it wasn’t real.”

She felt tears stinging at her eyes but still refused to cry in front of someone, even if that someone happened to be her best friend. Sensing this, Cry released her and rose to his feet. “Yo, I’m gonna see what I can make for breakfast. Wouldn’t want to go to class hungry!” With that, he walked into the kitchen, whistling just loud enough that he wouldn’t hear her quietly crying to herself in the next room as he raided the fridge.

Still, she refused to let the tears fall. Instead, she angrily wiped her eyes and looked at the half-done homework that she had fallen asleep over the night before and tried to focus on it. As she was scribbling down answers, she heard Cry’s voice from the kitchen. “Leave that alone for now, Hazel, you should eat something.” She looked up to see him plating food and setting them down on the table. She wasn’t that hungry, but still complied, for him.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

At school Hazel forced herself to focus on Ryan’s lecture instead of constantly glancing at the empty desk next to her. But even Ryan seemed to have a hard time paying attention lately; always forgetting what he was talking about in the middle of a sentence, and just having an overall lack of focus during class time. The deaths were getting to him.

And she couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like Mark was progressively avoiding her more and more. At first it wasn’t obvious; he would still come over to check on her and make sure she was feeling okay, but he seemed so uneasy all the time. She slipped further into her seat, wishing she could disappear; this class was a train wreck without her sister there to lighten the mood or ask Ryan questions to make class more interesting.

Class dragged on. Finally, it was the mid-class break. Hazel gathered her things and headed for the library, contemplating whether she should even go back to the second half of class or not. Cry couldn’t come with her today due to other plans; meaning that it would be just her and Ray, if he wasn’t planning on going home early.

As it turned out, she wouldn’t even be staying in the library for very long. She spotted Mr. Ramsey shuffling papers together as if he were getting ready to leave. She approached and said “Going somewhere?”

He nodded. “I convinced Ryan to speak with Mark and his team about what happened fifteen years ago. I was part of the class, so I figured that I should be there too, give my own perspective on things. Did you want… wait, I’m sorry. Never mind,” he backpedaled quickly.

Hazel sighed. “Actually, I wouldn’t mind being there, if the rest of the tactics team wouldn’t mind having me, and if you don’t mind. I think Shan would want me to fill in for her,” her throat nearly choked up when she said her sister’s name, but something gave her the strength to keep speaking. “If you need more people there to give opinions, I will do my best.”

Mr. Ramsey looked up and over her shoulder when there were more footsteps heard entering the room. “Ah, Ray. Good to see you.”

Hazel turned around. “Ray, I thought you went home already,” she hesitated, “I was just making plans to sit in on another tactics meeting. Thought they might need the help.”

Ray shrugged. “Okay, let’s go.”

“You… you’re going too?”

“Yeah, why not. Might as well since I don’t have anything else to do this afternoon. Except go home and have my mom ask for the hundredth time when you’re coming over again. She misses having a painting buddy.”

Hazel looked up at Mr. Ramsey for confirmation, who only shrugged. “I can say that I invited both of you, no big deal. I think the more voices we have, the better chance we have at coming to a fair conclusion.”

And with that, the trio departed to the empty KM classroom. Mark and the others were already waiting, sitting near the front with Ryan leaning against the chalkboard to face them. Mark looked up when they entered, looking slightly surprised. “Oh, you brought more people, great! Welcome to another tactics meeting! Sit where you guys like,” he both sounded and looked very surprised.

Hazel sat next to Lindsay at the front, with Ray on her other side. Mark hesitated before walking to the front with Ryan and Mr. Ramsey, turning to address the others in the room. “Okay, I’ve called this special meeting because Ryan and Geoff wanted to tell us about some of their experiences during their time in KM fifteen years ago. You may have heard the rumors by now, that the curse was stopped halfway through the year. Those rumors are true, and hopefully with their help, we can put an end to it this year too. I need all of you with me on this, so please be respectful and pay attention while both of them are talking. It’s hard for both of them to be here talking about some of these things, so keep that in mind.”

He turned and nodded at Ryan. “With that said, I will turn the floor over to the two of you. Thank you so much for coming forward for all of us.” Mark sat down in an isolated corner of the front, away from the rest of the team. Hazel frowned, for someone so intent on promoting unity, he wasn’t acting as if that was something that he wanted. The odd thing was that he usually would have been seated with his team; something was wrong.

Before Hazel could ponder on it any further, Ryan took a deep breath and began speaking. “My reluctance to come forward before may have cost us a life,” he kept half glancing at Hazel before turning his eyes away in shame. He continued with great pain etched onto his face, his voice low and full of self-loathing. “I hate to think about it, that’s why I tried so hard to avoid it. But in keeping to that selfishness, I failed my class. I won’t let anything else happen while I can do something to prevent it. I promise you all, that selfishness ends today.”

“Fifteen years ago, we lost our teacher to a sudden fire that took place in the old KM classroom; no one knows how it started, in fact I think the only person in the classroom at that time was Mr. McErrin himself. Some of us wondered if maybe he was the one who…”

“He didn’t.” Mr. Ramsey’s voice cut across the otherwise silent room like a sharp blade, speaking with a firm and insistent tone. He fixed Ryan with a hard look. “He would never have done that, put us in danger, or himself. He was not the cause of the fire.” Ryan glanced over at his former classmate but said no more in regard to his previous insinuations and instead continued with the story.

 “There was a fire in the classroom, and it just got out of control… He didn’t make it out alive. He had been a bit of a legend before, because he had survived so many years as the teacher of the KM class. He was there when it first started, the curse…” Ryan paused, realizing that he was rambling again, as he often did these days. “I’m not sure how much you guys actually have heard about Mr. McErrin, so this may all be old news to you.”

When no one spoke up to stop him, he nodded slightly and continued. “Before Mr. McErrin passed on, he had planned a class trip for our year, during the winter break. Our substitute ended up taking us as planned. Just like we’ve planned for this year. We will be going to the same place that we did back then; there’s a large plot of land in a town not far from here, Serenity. It’s supposedly considered holy ground by everyone in town, and our teacher caught wind of it.”

“He thought that it might be possible to use the power from the grounds to combat the class curse. It was our newest tactic, and one that the tactics team of my class hoped would end things for good. Not long after that trip, our class did stop experiencing deaths, so I guess it must have worked. That’s the reason for our trip this year, so please. As class icons, I would like all of you to encourage as many people as possible to attend, we may need everyone to combat the curse. This may be our only chance to stop this thing.”

“It wasn’t the class trip itself that stopped the curse, Ryan; it was something that happened during the trip,” Mr. Ramsey interjected again, earning an annoyed look from his coworker. “There were two more deaths right after we visited the grounds. It wasn’t enough to stop it. It was something else.” He averted his gaze to the ground as he spoke, and Ryan’s face softened into slight sympathy.

“I always thought that it was because it needed time to take effect. But what else could it have been, Geoff? I don’t remember anything substantial about the trip otherwise.”

“There was a rumor shortly after that someone stopped it directly. You know his name. Jack Pattillo.” Ryan sighed, but Mr. Ramsey continued. “I know you guys didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, but this is the reason that I’m here, to suggest that the team go and talk to him. If he can’t tell you anything, then the trip will have to do, but we need to try everything we have now. It’s getting serious; we’ve already lost four classmates, and the remaining students are starting to talk about familial deaths. It’s increasing faster than anything I’ve ever seen in past years. We have to try everything.”

Both men were now conversing as if they were alone, seeming to completely forget that Hazel, Ray, and the entirety of the tactics team was still listening. “Yes, I know that you’re right Geoff, we _do_ need to try everything we can think of,but… that was just a rumor, from what I could tell.” He paused before adding in a strange voice “It wasn’t the only rumor floating around that year.”

Mr. Ramsey narrowed his eyes in challenge. “What else did you hear, Ryan?”  It sounded so close to a threatening tone that Mark had to clear his throat to get the duo’s attention.

“Hey, so I know that it was hard for both of you to come forward with this information. Let’s see if Geoff has any more information that he would like to add, then adjourn the meeting. Class will be starting up again soon, and I have to get to work soon. I have a double shift today,” he explained, looking Hazel’s way as if talking solely to her. She nodded in understanding; double shifts were rough in a restaurant.

Mr. Ramsey sighed. “I’m sorry, that’s all that I wanted to add. It might be a good idea for you to take a few of your team members and find Jack Pattillo, see if the rumors were true, see if he remembers anything about that trip, and then report back to the rest of the group. That’s my only suggestion at present; and the only reason that I’m giving weight to this otherwise improbable rumor is because he was acting really strange after the trip. I think he was just so… jumpy and nervous. He stayed away from everyone for a while. Anyway that’s all I’ve got to offer you.”

Ryan jumped in and said “Mark, if you are planning on going to meet with him, then I’d better go with your group, to supervise. Seeing me might help to jog his memory, in case he has trouble remembering anything.”

Mark looked slightly surprised, and said “Um, sure. You guys act like he might cause us problems. Is he… is he dangerous?”

Ryan hesitated. “I’m not sure. Maybe. I’d just feel better if I was there with you guys. I haven’t been involved enough with your team, and that needs to change, so I’ll go with you guys.”

Mark turned to look at his group. “Okay guys, who wants to go with me to meet this guy? Remember that this is _your choice_ , and you are not obligated to go.”

The only one not willing to go was Richard, who muttered something about Rose being sick and wanting to keep an eye on her for the weekend. Mark nodded his assent and then turned to Ray and Hazel. “What about you two, since you were kind enough to attend this meeting, of course you’re welcome to go too. But only if you really want to.”

Ray immediately declined. “Nah, too much trouble,” he admitted, then said “Good luck though, hope you guys find something out.”

Hazel’s answer was also immediate. “I’m going with you guys. To stand in for my sister,” she chuckled in spite of the throbbing in her heart whenever she thought of her sister’s face. “Shan would have gone in an instant, and found a way to drag me along. I can’t not go, can I?”

Mark smiled gently at her, but there was also just a touch of regret in his features that she could see. “Of course, you’re more than welcome to come with us.” He turned back to the group. “That makes six people for the trip. Unless someone has a van, we’ll need two cars to make the trip this weekend. Geoff and I will work on locating Jack Pattillo, and then have more details for you tomorrow, because I’ve really gotta get to work.” With a tired laugh he dismissed everyone and dashed for the door.

Ray turned to look at Hazel as the room started to slowly fill with classmates returning from lunch. “Wow, it’s like you like to work or something. Don’t worry, I’ll put extra effort into enjoying my weekend for you,” he said with a grin.

Hazel shrugged and responded in a soft voice “I just want the curse to be over. If I can help stop it, then I will.”

Ray’s smile dropped as he studied her. “… Yeah,” he answered finally. “I know what you mean.” Not seeming to know what else to do, he gave her an awkward pat on the back before returning to his usual seat. Hazel returned to her seat as well, just as Cry was walking in the room with a worn-out look.

“Next time, I’m just going to the library. I don’t care who needs my help. I don’t care if it’s for a job or for a friend or for anything, if I ever have to do that again, I will literally die.”

Hazel laughed. “What kind of plans did you have, anyway? You never told me.”

Cry shuddered and refused to answer, using Ryan starting class as an excuse to drop the subject, to which Hazel happily complied.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

After school, Hazel headed to Jay’s Diner for the Spook Crew meeting. She went regularly now, to the point that she never really thought about not going. She was greeted with a friendly smile from Lindsay, who patted the seat next to her as she always seemed to do.

“Michael’s not coming today?” Hazel asked with a tilt of her head as she sat. Michael had started coming to some of the meetings after her sister’s death. She thought that he might start coming regularly like she was.

Lindsay shook her head with a huff. “I guess he didn’t want to show up today.” Hazel nodded and decided not to probe further.

More of their friends were filtering into the diner. Suzy, Arin, and Dan all walked in together, and when the former two decided to sit at Hazel’s table, the latter was left out. Dan frowned as he assessed the lack of room at the booth.

Arin raised a hand in protest and said “Dude, just sit behind us, there’s not enough room for three people on one side.”

His friend raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?” And with that, Danny sat down on Hazel and Lindsay’s side, ushering them further in as he settled into the seat. “I think I fit pretty well, Arin.”

“Dammit, you’re killing them, look!” Arin motioned at the girls fiercely with a wave of his hand, to which Danny shrugged and stayed put.

“Whatever, it’s fine,” Hazel was insisting when she saw Gavin stroll into the diner and look around. Once he spotted her, he motioned her to him with a wave of his hand and sat at a booth on the opposite side of the restaurant. Hazel blinked in confusion before remembering that she had promised to meet up with him today.

After excusing herself briefly when Danny let her out of the seat, she walked toward him with caution, all of her friends looking on curiously. Gavin was sitting opposite of Aaron, who had apparently been waiting already. Hazel chose to sit next to Aaron instead of Gavin, since she knew him better from being a regular attendee at the Spook Crew meetings. “Hey Aaron! And Gavin, how are you?”

Gavin seemed to regard her with more sympathy than formerly. “I’m top. I hope you’re doing okay. I, uh…” he didn’t seem to know how to proceed momentarily, before finally settling on saying “I heard. Sorry about your sister, she was always really nice. Sad to lose her.” Aaron shifted in the seat next to Hazel in discomfort.

Hazel smiled weakly, appreciating the effort, at least. “Thanks, Gavin.”

“So why exactly did you call us here for? What’s going on?” Aaron asked in his British accent.

“I’m glad that you asked. It’s pretty obvious by now that the KM curse isn’t bullshit like we thought. Well, like I used to think. It’s real. What’s more, our tactics team isn’t doing much about it, and it’s causing us to lose people.” He spoke so bluntly that when Hazel opened her mouth to speak in protest, to defend Mark and his actions, nothing came out.

“Oh, I know that you want to say that it isn’t true, you’re as nice as your sister. And just as naïve. Trying and doing aren’t the same bloody thing, so even though the team is ‘trying’ to protect us, the fact of the matter is, they are failing.”

Hazel felt her teeth grind against each other in irritation. “First, how dare you assume that you know me or my sister! Second, fuck you, you don’t know what they all go through, having the entire class on their conscious as if it’s their fault that they don’t know how to stop some stupid supernatural curse! My sister died trying to promote unity in the class, and I won’t let you fucking RUIN IT!!” Gavin looked taken aback by this sudden onslaught of emotion, eyes widening.

All of the anger that she’d been holding back since her sister’s death threatened to rush out of her. Sensing this, Aaron tried to calm both sides down. “Come on, guys, we’re all supposed to support one another. Can’t we just do that? Gavin, what you said was out of line, man!”

Gavin gnawed on his lower lip, fighting back his own anger and after he seemed to be calmer, said in a low voice. “I apologize for that just now, I just get worked up thinking about all this. I don’t want to die; no one does, of course, but I just want to make sure that we put a stop to all this. Which is why I need your help, both of you.”

“I’ve been doing some of my own research, and it looks like there was a time during KM’s history that the class curse was stopped after it had begun. Fifteen years ago, they also were forced to stop using the invisibles tactic and had to come up with a different way to protect the class. They went to the holy grounds of Serenity Village, just like we’re going to do this winter break. The curse stopped shortly after.”

Aaron’s eyes widened. “Really, I didn’t know that! Maybe this trip can save us after all!”

Hazel couldn’t hold back the smirk that had been forming on her face as she listened to Gavin speak. “Yeah, I actually knew all of this already. Well, not the part about them having to stop the invisibles tactic, but the rest of that came up in the tactics meeting today. We have a lead on why it may have been stopped, and some of us are checking it out this weekend.”

Gavin seemed too relieved to be angry. “Really, that’s great! This is why I wanted the two of you to help me. Hazel, you’re close to the team, so you can report back on anything that they find out. Aaron, you’re close to just about everyone else, so if you hear about any useful rumors, you will also report back.”

Hazel crossed her arms across her chest. “And why do you think we’ll agree to help you? I think our team has this covered.”

Gavin shook his head with a laugh. “Because, question queen, we make up a smaller group than tactics. It will be easier for us to maneuver and easier to make decisions, as naturally with a bigger group comes a bigger chance for disagreement. This way it will be easier to decide things, and we might have a chance to stop the curse before anyone. Think about it a minute. As long as the curse gets stopped, who cares who does it?”

Hazel bit her lip at the nickname (everyone seemed to call her that lately) but nodded. “I guess it makes sense…” She sighed. “Fine, you win Gavin. If we find anything out, I’ll let you know.”

“And if I hear anything useful, I’ll tell you guys,” Aaron agreed right after her. “But only if we keep this between the three of us. I don’t want anyone else getting involved. It will make things more complicated, and probably more dangerous.”

After they all made the agreement, Gavin stood from his seat. “Alright, thanks. I won’t forget this. Anyway, nothing else can be done for today, I’ll let you get back to your… meeting, or something.”

“Gavin, you don’t want to stay for the meeting? It’s helpful to a lot of us, and I dunno, it seems like you could use the interaction,” Hazel offered, though she wasn’t fully sure why she was asking him to stay. Internally, she thought of her sister’s hope for the class to come together as one; it was a hope that she and Mark both had in common.

But Gavin merely shrugged and shook his head. “Thanks, but no thanks. Not really my thing. It’s better to not get attached at this point, isn’t it? Just in case…” He let the words hang in the air as he left the diner, and Hazel and Aaron shuffled over to the rest of the Crew. The meeting was in full swing already, and they sat together in an empty booth close enough to hear but far enough away to not be heard themselves.

“I don’t agree with him fully, but he’s not all wrong either, is he? What do you think, Hazel?” Aaron whispered over to her as they half-listened to Arin’s interpretation of a popular urban legend.

Hazel shook her head in response. She really didn’t know what to think anymore.


	14. Beach Blues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

Hazel drove to campus early that Saturday morning, around six. The others were apparently already at the appointed meeting spot. Mark and Sean were loading Ryan’s car with their bags (what they were bringing and why, Hazel had no idea) while Ryan and Michael checked both intended cars for any leaks or other problems, just in case they would cause problems. Lindsay was leaning against the fender of one of the cars when she saw Hazel, and waved happily.

“Hey Lindsay!” Hazel greeted her friend with a hug and then looked over the rest of their group. “Michael looks so friendly this morning!” she said with obvious sarcasm, and both girls erupted in laughter. “I see they’re checking the car engines and stuff. Seems legit.”

“Yeah, well it’s understandable, I guess. After all, we are leaving on an hour and a half car ride looking to stop a curse. There’s a chance we could run into some trouble,” Lindsay half laughed, though she looked more serious than she sounded.

Hazel nodded as a frown formed on her face. “Yeah, I understand. We have to be extra careful.”  The girls watched as the others finished putting things in cars, it was silent other than the sounds of things thudding against each other in the back of the trunk.

The guys approached them afterward, all looking excited despite the task before them. “Sorry I’m late, guys,” Hazel apologized. “I didn’t really bring much, so I can carry my bag on my shoulder…”

Mark waved off her worry. “Don’t feel bad, we only got here a few minutes before you.” He grinned at her. “I’m glad that you all decided to show up, this may be the most important breakthrough that we’ve had since we found out that Geoff was a former tactics head.”

As he was speaking, someone walked up to the group and stood in their midst. Hazel smiled when she saw who it was. “Ray!” she clapped her hands together in excitement. “I thought you weren’t coming?”

Ray merely shrugged. “Yeah, well my mom was driving me crazy, so I thought it would be nice to actually get out and spend time with classmates for once.” He nodded at everyone. “Hey, how’s it going, guys?”

Pretty much everyone except Michael welcomed him into the group right away, although Mark seemed a little less pleased than he did before. After a beat, Ryan rubbed his hands together and addressed the group of students before him. “Alright, this looks like everyone! Big thanks to Ray for deciding to come with us, I think the more people we have the more power we have. Now to sort everyone into cars… I’ll be driving one, of course. With me, I’d like Hazel, Ray, and Sean. Michael’s driving his own vehicle, so Lindsay and Mark, you guys go in that car.”

Sean gave Mark a peculiar look, as if expecting his friend to interject, but Mark made no move to counter the arrangements. With a serious air, he walked toward Michael and Lindsay’s car, giving Ryan a nod as he did. “Alright, let’s get going then.”

Soon both groups were situating themselves into the cars. In Hazel’s group, Sean was up front with Ryan, while Ray and Hazel were in the back. As they started up the car for the long drive, Hazel turned to him with a questioning look. “The real reason you decided to show up?”

Ray merely shrugged. “Eh, I was just bored; I already told you that, didn’t I?”

Hazel narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t believe you. Going out is the last thing you would do when you’re bored.”

He shrugged and started messing with his phone. “Well maybe I was just a bit curious. I want to know if we can stop this… this _thing_ , from happening.”

“You’re worried about someone,” Hazel said as realization dawned upon her. “It’s the only reason you would change your mind so quickly.”

“I’ve been thinking lately that my mom hasn’t seemed to be very healthy. And I don’t want anything to happen to her…” Ray sighed. “Whatever, it’s not your problem. Can we talk about something else?”

“You’re my friend, so it kind of is my problem,” Hazel countered but then sighed right afterwards, saying “But if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t force you.”

Ray seemed relieved and started to turn his attention to the front. “So who is this guy we’re going to be meeting, anyway? Old friend of yours? Somehow I doubt it.”

Ryan shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “And why is that?”

“The two a’ ya didn’t seem too thrilled with the idea of seein’ him again,” Sean pointed out from the front. “It was obvious.”

Ryan sighed. “Alright, you caught me. We weren’t exactly friends with the guy. After all, he was the reason that the curse started during our class year.”

Hazel couldn’t help but ask “Why do you guys think it was his fault?”

“Because,” Ryan spoke in a low and haunted voice. “He was our invisible.”

She noticed Ray stiffen up at Ryan’s words, whether out of guilt or something else, she didn’t know. It didn’t stop her from questioning their teacher further. “And why does that make him responsible for the curse that year?”

“Because only a month and a half into the semester, he quit.”

An uncomfortable silence stretched across them all. Hazel felt herself growing warm with guilt and embarrassment; if Ryan and Geoff still blamed Jack for the invisible tactic failing, how many of her own classmates blamed her for this year’s deaths? How many blamed Ray? She almost wished that she hadn’t asked at all, except that she knew this might be important.

When no one spoke for a long while, Ryan broke the silence again. “He didn’t have the same situation that you and Ray did, though,” he insisted, almost sounding as if he were trying to convince everyone, himself included. “No one blames you guys for what’s happening this year, and if they do they shouldn’t. Our class was different.”

And so he began the story. “For an entire month and a half, there were no deaths for our class. Because of that, most people didn’t even believe that the curse was real, because we were all fine so far. Geoff made sure that no one broke the rules, but otherwise our class didn’t care about the curse.”

“And then, sometime around the end of September and the beginning of October, Jack snapped. He had agreed at the beginning of the year, somewhat unwillingly, to be the invisible for our class. But instead of trying to accept and deal with that decision like you and Ray did, he started to rebel on his own. He suddenly sought out our attention, he did anything he could think to get us to react to him at all.”

“That day… the day he refused to be an invisible any longer, our teacher was in the middle of a lecture when he stood up and slammed his fist onto his desk as loudly as he could. I’m surprised he didn’t break it. It was so sudden, so loud, we couldn’t help but all turn and look.”

“He demanded that we acknowledge his existence. He couldn’t take the isolation. And of course we had to do as he said. Geoff had made a deal, that if he couldn’t handle the situation, then he would be relieved of his duty as an invisible. The tactics team was supposed to make a decision the next day on who the new invisible would be, but before they could, they realized that there would be no point; the curse had already started. That night, a girl on the team was in a horrible accident and she died on the scene. She was our first death.”

“It’s not that we don’t trust Jack because he gave up his position as an invisible, we all understood how hard it probably was for him to be ignored as if he didn’t even exist. We don’t trust him for how he went about it. If he had just gone up to Geoff privately, Geoff could have picked a replacement quickly enough and then switched the role over right away. Jack didn’t give the team any warning. That’s why a lot of us were skeptical when we heard that he had been the cause of the curse stopping midyear; it seemed more likely that he was trying to get on everyone’s good side again. Either way, I don’t trust him, but I guess every lead is worth investigating.”

The weight of responsibility settled on everyone in the car. They had to find a way to end the curse, before more people lost their lives. No one felt it more, perhaps than Hazel herself. It was quiet for most of the rest of the drive there, with the sound of the turned-down radio the only noise between them all. It wasn’t until they were about twenty minutes away from their destination that Hazel noticed how pale Sean was in the front seat.

“Sean, are you okay? You don’t look very well,” Hazel asked with a hint of worry.

Instead of answering, Sean merely put a hand firmly against his own mouth, shaking his head slightly. Ryan glanced over. “Hey what’s wrong, car sick? We’re almost there now. Do you think you can make it until we reach the town Jack works in?” When he was only met with a slight gagging noise, he said “Okay hold on, we’ll stop for you right now!”

After they managed to signal Michael to follow them, they made their way into the parking lot of a passing plaza and stopped. Sean practically threw himself out of the car and headed for an outside garbage can as fast as he could manage. Everyone exited their respective vehicles as they watched him run.

“Dammit, you guys scared me. I thought something bad had happened!” Michael fumed. “This couldn’t have waited until we got to the resort that the guy works at?”

Hazel frowned at his tone. “No, it couldn’t actually. Sean wasn’t feeling well, so we stopped to give him a break. If you were sick, we would have done the same. Don’t make him feel bad for taking care of himself.”

“I’m _not_ trying to do that, all I asked was a simple question.” Michael snapped back. Lindsay nudged him and shook her head in warning.

Sensing a fight brewing, Ryan regained control. “Everyone please calm down. What we are doing right now is serious, so let’s not mess it up by fighting for no reason. Got it?” When it seemed that Michael and Hazel were begrudgingly complying, he nodded. “Good. We all need to work together here. Let’s use this as an opportunity to stretch our legs and use the restroom. It’s going to be really busy once we reach our destination.”

The rest of the group heeded Ryan’s words and started walking across the parking lot to look for a restroom, until the only two still standing there were Hazel and Michael. She took a side glance at him from her peripheral vision. Never being the type of person to let a problem linger, she decided it was best to try to find out what was bothering him. “Why did you snap at me? It really was uncalled for,” she started out.

Michael tensed up again. “I wasn’t snapping,” he insisted, “and if I did, then I didn’t mean to. Sorry.” Sounding genuine didn’t seem to be his strong suit, because he really didn’t sound sorry at all.

Hazel sighed and replied “It’s fine, I guess. I just didn’t understand why you did it.”

They stared at each other, both refusing to speak before Michael begrudgingly gave in. “I guess since we’re stopped anyway, we might as well walk around and stretch while we wait for the others.”

Hazel nodded. “Okay, good idea.” They started walking toward the stretch of stores in the plaza with an awkward silence hanging between them.

“So… how are you and Lindsay doing?” Hazel finally asked, trying to distract Michael from whatever it was on his mind that seemed to be bothering him. Talking about his girlfriend should do the trick.

“Good,” he answered, but that seemed to be all he had to say about it. Then he was the one hesitating before saying “You know, I’ve been wanting to come to another one of those meetings that you and Lindsay go to… The ones at the diner.”

“The Spook Crew meetings? If you want to go, then go. Those are for everyone, you don’t have to feel uncomfortable about going,” Hazel reasoned.

Michael cleared his throat. “I know, I know, it’s just not usually my type of thing. I guess you have been going a lot, though.”

Hazel nodded, her voice becoming softer as she said “I believe in those meetings. My sister was the one who started them, after all. I feel like I need to be there, for her. She would want me to be there.”

Michael started grumbling to himself, seeming to forget that she was there. “Michael?” she asked to get his attention again.

He jumped slightly at the sound of her voice. “Sorry, I was thinking,” he mumbled. He paused as if considering something before asking in a subdued tone “Did… did _she_ ever talk about me?”

“Who, Shan?” When he didn’t say anything in reply, Hazel had to assume that she was right. “Yes, she did. Talked about all of you. She loved you guys.”

If possible, Michael seemed even more somber than before, and nothing else was said until they were walking back to the rest of the group, who were all waiting for the duo at the cars. “Don’t tell Lindsay, she would worry,” Michael mumbled as they parted.

After asking Sean if he was feeling better, Hazel went back to staring out of the window in silence for the duration of the rest of the car ride. She was surprised to feel a few tears sliding down her cheeks; it still hurt to think about Shan after all.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Ryan walked out of the building shaking his head, Mark following close behind. “I thought Geoff told him, we were coming, what the hell?”

“What happened?” Sean asked, leaning against the side of the building as he asked. He still looked rather pale to Hazel.

Mark answered instead of Ryan. “He doesn’t get in for another few hours for his shift. We have a bit of waiting to do, it seems.”

Ryan cut in with an annoyed huff. “It’s like eleven, and he doesn’t get in until two thirty. There’s literally only one thing I can think of us doing while we wait.”

“And what’s that?” Hazel asked, unsure of what else there was to keep the group preoccupied for so long.

Lindsay chuckled. “Some of us figured there might be a wait, and there’s a beach nearby. We might as well go there. After all, we don’t want to waste what may be the last warm weekend of the year.”

Michael nodded beside her. “Yeah, we might as well take advantage of the chance. I mean, who would have thought it would be this warm? Especially after the last few weeks. Did anyone else bring bathing suits?”

Hazel looked around the group and saw that almost everyone raised their hands, they had anticipated the same thing and brought a suit just in case. Everyone except herself and Mark, it would seem. “Even you brought one?!” She asked Ray in surprise.

He shook his head and said “Of course not, but I don’t like to swim much anyway, so it doesn’t matter that I don’t have a suit.”

She puffed out her cheek in annoyance. “I want to go play in the water too… But I didn’t bring anything with me…”

“Well, let’s just head over there and see if there are any nearby shops that sell swimsuits,” Ryan said with a shrug. “It’ll be fine.”

With that, both groups returned to their cars from the building that Jack worked at; Jack Pattillo may have been their last hope at that moment, but they couldn’t just wait there all day for him.

A ten minute car ride brought them all to a bright and slightly crowded beach. They weren’t the only ones that wanted to enjoy the last warm days before winter invaded the air. Looking around, they noticed a few quaint shops surrounding the beach. Ryan pointed to them and said “See, told you there would be shops. Just go look inside and see if anything catches your eye.”

Hazel gulped, slightly embarrassed to admit that she hadn’t brought a lot of money with her; after all, she had thought it would be a quick meeting with Jack and then back home again. She was startled out of her thoughts by Mark stepping forward and saying “I should go too, I guess,” he shot her a weak smile. “I really want to go in the water too, but I didn’t think we’d be going to the beach while out here. I’m kind of relieved I’m not the only one who didn’t think about it.”

Hazel laughed a little. “Yeah, well let’s go have a look, I guess…” In her mind she told herself that she would worry about the lack of money if she didn’t see a bathing suit within her current means. With that, she and Mark walked toward the strip of shops in front of them, leaving the rest of the group to wander down the beach in search of a good spot to settle into.

For some reason, Mark was being extremely quiet… Again. Hazel didn’t know why everyone was deciding to be silent and moody on this trip, but she wasn’t having it. She decided to try getting Mark to talk. “I actually don’t know how to swim,” Hazel commented as they entered one of the stores. “So I’m probably just going to splash around in the shallow part near the shore.”

“Really? That’s a shame, it’s not too hard once you get the hang of it,” Mark commented.

“Well, yes, I figured as much,” Hazel chuckled. “Nothing is hard when you’re used to it. I’ve always wanted to learn, and sometimes I think that I’m getting somewhere, but then I don’t go in the water again for a million years and I forget all over again.”

“If you really wanted to learn, I wouldn’t mind helping you,” Mark said at last. They were just about to part ways to look in their respective sections for a bathing suit, but Hazel lingered in the aisle to hear him. “Only if you want.”

“Of course! Any help would be cool. Why would I not want your help?”

Mark frowned. “Well, I just thought… You mean you don’t hate me?”

She couldn’t hold back a loud yelp at that. “What?! Of course not!” Hazel exclaimed as a surprised look stretched across her face. “Why would I ever hate you? Out of everyone, you’re probably one of the few people that’s had my back since I got into this class.”

“Oh, well… I just thought…” Mark rambled, a wide grin settling on his lips. “Hold on, I’ll be back…” And with that, he disappeared into the rows of men’s clothing, searching for swim trunks.

Hazel sighed and started looking for one too, all the while muttering to herself about crazy men and their strange ideas. “…This one’s cute,” she said out loud, taking a swimsuit by the hanger and holding it out in front of her. Quickly checking the tag, she let out a sigh of defeat while her heart sank into her stomach. It was just out of her price range. “Damn.” Biting her lip, she decided to try it on for fun and partly to torture herself for not bringing her whole wallet with her.

“It seems to fit me… It’s the perfect size, and I can’t get it. Oh, why did I do this to myself?” Hazel chastised herself as she examined her reflection. “Oh well… Time to look for another one. Preferably a little less expensive.” Sighing, she got dressed again and prepared to search through the clearance section.

She almost ran into Mark on her way out of the dressing room. He was still smiling as he said “I was just about to look for you. Hey, is that the one you’re getting?” he asked as he nodded to the suit she held in her hand.

Blushing, she replied “Well, no, I decided to keep looking first.” He could tell that she was hedging, causing Mark to raise an eyebrow at her.

“So you didn’t like it? I think it would be cute on you,” he insisted.

Her blush started to feel more like a deep burn as it made its way down her spine and across her shoulder blades. “It’s not that, exactly…”

“Really? Then why not just get it?” Once Hazel pretty much made it obvious that she couldn’t afford the one she was holding, Mark wordlessly walked up to her and gently pried it away before heading for the register with it.

“Hey, Mark! I was just going to look for another one, so it’s fine! Geez, I can buy one on my own!” Hazel exclaimed as she chased after him, trying to grab it back from him. He expertly dodged each attempt with a smirk.

“But I think this one would be cute on you! I wouldn’t offer otherwise,” Mark half-pouted.

Hazel puffed her cheeks out and crossed her arms, but didn’t try to stop him again. “Hmph, fine. Do what you want. Not like I don’t owe you already.”

“You don’t owe me anything. I think it’s the other way around, actually.”

“That’s the second time you’ve said something weird like that today. Why do you owe me, why would you think I hated you? I never said anything like that,” Hazel queried. Mark shot her a sideways glance and then signaled for her to wait until they were out of the shop. Hazel complied and waited until he made his purchase and they were well past the threshold of the store. “Okay, we’re out. Tell me please?”

Mark was still hesitant, taking his time to hand her the bathing suit and wondering out loud where everyone else must have been. Finally, he got up the courage to answer. “I just thought that you would hold me responsible for… everything. I know everyone else does. I’m the head of tactics, it was my job to keep the curse at bay. It was my job to protect everyone and I knew that going in. I’m not doing a great job at it right now. That’s why; no one trusts me, and I can’t blame them for it.”

Hazel’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You thought I blamed you for my sister’s death? Come on, why would I do that? You had nothing to do with it, in fact you’re the one working hardest to put a stop to the curse! What kind of person do you think I am?” Hazel finally stopped her bitter rant to breathe, allowing Mark to speak.

“Sorry. I guess I knew you didn’t blame me, or I thought I knew. I just know that a lot of other people are holding me responsible, and I can’t blame them for it. I just assumed everyone felt that way, I guess.”

Hazel couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “Like Shan always said, never assume. Although she made a lot of assumptions herself, so she had no right to talk. And I’m pretty sure that not everyone blames you. Your team is on your side, right? I know that Shan was, a hundred percent.”

“Lindsay and Sean, for the most part. I’m not sure about Michael and Richard though. They’ve questioned my leadership since the first death, honestly, though I bet they won’t admit it to me.”

“Their loss.” Hazel said as she started to look around for a place to change into her new swimsuit. “The point is, don’t just assume that I feel a certain way and then not bother to talk to me about it. No more misunderstandings, got it?”

Mark laughed. “Understood.” There was a long pause before he said “Seriously, where did our group go?”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

“So, when should we head back to meet up with Jack?” Hazel asked as she sat in between Ray and Ryan on the beach. Sean was laying down on the other side of their teacher, still a little sick from before. She and Ray had just returned from walking along the beach and looking for shells (of which they found none).

Ryan shrugged. “I left a message for him at his job. They should let him know where we are, and assuming that he comes to work early like I’ve heard, he’ll have enough time to come to us. If not, we’ll head over a little after three.”

“So what does he do, exactly? I thought graduating from Kennewick College meant you were guaranteed to be famous or something.”

Ryan chuckled. “Yeah, I remember those rumors were going around when I started attending too. In a sense, Geoff and I did reach a level of success in our careers, though I was asked to come back and teach here as a personal favor to someone. They wanted someone who had been in the class before to teach it; they thought I would 'understand’ you guys better. If only that were true.” Then he said to himself, “I wonder why Geoff came back? It couldn’t be for that reason…”

Hazel bit back her curiosity about that statement and focused on learning more about the man they were supposed to be meeting. This was a little more important, after all. “So you and Geoff managed to be a little popular. What about Jack?”

“He dropped out the next year, so he never technically graduated from Kennewick. No wonder he has to work where he does,” Ryan sneered, catching Hazel off guard. She never saw Ryan as being a spiteful person, so hearing him speak so harshly about someone was surprising. Noticing the look on her face, he shot her a small apologetic smile. “Sorry, he and I really didn’t get along too well.” Then, with a more faraway look he added “I can almost hear Shan berating me for being so cruel.” He tried to laugh, but it failed.

“Well, she definitely would have been surprised. She probably would have scolded you for it.” Hazel agreed.

“I’m sorry, I guess I shouldn’t bring her up. I don’t want to make you upset,” Ryan started hedging, but Hazel shook her head at him.

“That’s not it at all. I like talking about my sister; if all I have now is memories, than I want to be able to talk about them. She shouldn’t be forgotten.” Hazel insisted.

“As if anyone could,” Ryan chuckled. “Hey Hazel, you and Ray don’t have to sit around if you don’t want to, go splash around and make the most of the weather. If I wasn’t waiting for this guy to show up, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

Ray shook his head. “Nope, I’m cool just sitting here. Go without me, Hazel.”

“Alright, I’ll go see what Lindsay’s up to. I just wanted to make sure Sean was okay, honestly.”

From Ryan’s other side, Hazel saw Sean lift slightly from his spot on the ground and said “Hey, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine in a bit. Just need to lie down for a minute,” he smiled encouragingly at her, but he still looked a little sick.

“You’re still pale as a ghost. Take it easy, Ireland,” Hazel teased before picking up a floaty that someone brought and wandering over to where Lindsay, Michael and Mark were. They were currently hitting a beach ball between the three of them, and when Hazel walked up, Lindsay caught the ball to put it out of play briefly.

“How’s Sean holding up?” Mark asked, looking over Hazel’s shoulder to where the other three were sitting.

“Still a little dizzy, I think. He keeps saying that he’ll be okay, though.” Hazel reported.

“Do you want to play with us? No one’s really keeping score or anything,” Lindsay offered.

Hazel shook her head. “Nah, I’m gonna go in the water for a bit. That’s my favorite part about going to the beach!”

“Okay. Just a heads up, it’s a little chilly,” Lindsay cautioned.

“Hey, I’ll go with you if you want,” Mark offered. “You still need someone to teach you how to swim, right?”

She accepted his invitation and the two of them split off and headed for the water. So much for learning how to swim, they spent most of their time splashing each other with water and with Hazel trying to protect her floaty from being stolen by a mischievous Mark.

“Mark, leave my floaty alone!” she chided for the fourth time while splashing at him in warning.

He spit out some water and grinned deviously. “Nope.” But before he could retaliate, he glanced over on the beach and said “Huh. Is that the guy we were supposed to be meeting?” Hazel turned and looked in the direction that he pointed (holding tightly onto her floaty in case it was a trick) and saw a burly redheaded man walking in Ryan’s direction. She and Mark decided to head back to the group just in case.

“You know what he looks like?” Hazel asked.

Mark shook his head. “No. I just have a hunch that it’s him. He’s walking toward Ryan now.”

As she and Mark got closer to the group, she saw Ryan turn to look at the approaching redhead with a look of spiteful recognition. It seemed that he still held Jack responsible for the events that took place during their year in KM. She and Mark were now standing with the rest of the group, watching him approach. Ryan managed to keep a neutral voice as he called out to his former classmate. “Jack, long time no see.”

“Hello, Ryan,” was Jack’s glum reply. He seemed just as wary of Ryan as Ryan was of him.

“I assume Geoff told you why we’re here?”

“Yeah, he did,” Jack replied, his voice changing in tone to low solemnity. “These are your students?”

“Yes. They’re part of the tactics team this year,” Ryan was about to introduce them all when Mark stepped up to do his own introduction, still dripping wet from just being in the water.

“Mark Fischbach, head of tactics,” he said, holding out his hand after drying it off on a towel.

“Jack Pattillo. I’m glad to see you guys still have a head of tactics. Sometimes they’re the first to go.” He cleared his throat before saying “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. So what made you guys want to come my way?”

Ryan took over. “Geoff remembered a rumor from our year. You claimed to have stopped the curse, remember? Right after the trip during winter break.”

Jack sighed before nodding. “Right, I remember. Well, to be more exact I remember claiming it, but as for the deed itself, I have no clue. I’m sorry.”

“So basically this was a waste of our time,” Michael broke in with a grumble. “Great.”

“Mr. Pattillo, if you can remember anything at all from that trip, we would appreciate it. Are you sure you were the one to end it? Or was it the trip itself?”

Jack put a hand to his head. “God, just thinking about it makes my head ache. I just… I can’t think of anything. I think I might have left something somewhere though… For future KM classes. No, I just don’t remember.”

Sensing that he wasn’t needed, Sean excused himself from the group and started walking to the concession stand across the street. Mark nodded his assent before turning his attention back to Jack, almost pleading. “You really can’t think of one thing? What about this thing you were just talking about, what is it?”

“I wish I could tell you more.”

“That’s not good enough, I need… Well, thanks for coming to meet us,” Mark finished in a dejected tone. It was obvious that he was disappointed by the lack of information.

“I knew this would be a waste of time,” Ryan sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

Hazel felt a nudge in her side, and when she turned her scolding eyes upon the person, Ray leaned over and whispered “Hey, question queen, now’s your chance!”

“Oh hush, what could I possibly ask him to help him remember?”

“Then why the hell are we all here? If one person was going to ask questions, then only one person needed to be here!”

“Honestly, I think everyone else just came to go to the beach…” Hazel was cut off by the sudden sound of screeching tires followed by a crash and a collective gasp from people nearby. Everyone whipped their heads around to the source of the noise and saw a crowd gathering near the road.

“Wait, was that…” Lindsay started to ask.

“Sean.” Mark said, eyes growing wide. He started running for the street, closely followed by Ryan, Michael, and Ray. Jack started to go with them, but then clutched at his head in obvious pain.

“We need to stop it,” Lindsay choked out, sounding frantic. She grabbed Hazel’s hand, shaking. “Help us, we need it to stop!”

Hazel knew that her friend was slowly becoming hysterical, so she squeezed Lindsay’s hand for some comfort. She was perhaps the only one of the whole group that could here Jack babbling to himself as well, still clutching his head. “Why again? After what I did, how could I forget? It’s there, in the old classroom. My story, _the instructions I left,_ they’re all there in the old KM classroom. Find it, must find…”

Listening to both Jack and Lindsay whimpering to themselves made it impossible for her to leave and check on Sean herself, but she soon saw that it wasn’t necessary. The crowd parted slightly, and she saw Mark and the others huddled over a limp form. Mark’s face was the only one directly facing her, and she watched as he slowly closed his eyes and brought a hand to his face. She couldn’t help but wonder in that moment how many more classmates they would lose.


	15. Searching for Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

Hazel sat alone in a booth in Jay’s Diner, waiting for either Aaron or Gavin to show up as planned. She had told them about the trip after her return, like she promised. Though she held back most of the information, she at least told them what she had heard from Jack (which no one else had heard but she herself), about leaving instructions in the old KM classroom.

She had found out so much more than that on the way back.

Hazel didn’t know much about Sean’s funeral arrangements, since Ryan handled calling his parents and making arrangements, but she was under the impression that he would be sent home at his family’s request.

She understood the sentiment; after all, when summer break rolled around her mother had requested for her to bring Shan’s ashes back home for the spreading of the ashes

At first it had been a depressingly silent car ride back home after they got done dealing with the police and medics. But slowly Ryan started talking more about that fateful trip fifteen years before, as if he couldn’t hold the burden of knowing by himself.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

_“Ryan, this might be important. What actually happened on that class trip fifteen years ago? Jack couldn’t tell us much, but I bet you could,” Ray insisted after the silence became unbearably painful. Just hours before, Sean had been riding in that very car, and now…_

_Ryan sighed. “It was one of the scariest experiences I’ve ever had while being in that class. Which is saying a lot, because everyone experienced so much fear, and pain. Death. I don’t know if I can tell you anything useful, but I’ll try.”_

_“The trip to Serenity started off normally, which was a surprise. Everyone was nervous about going so far away from Kennewick, but when nothing happened to hurt us on the five hour drive there, some of us started to feel hopeful. We checked into a local hotel not too far away from the sacred grounds. We were going to be staying in Serenity for about four days, that first day at check-in included. Our substitute was gone for most of the day to make arrangements with the owners of the grounds. After all, there were about twenty-three of us college kids wanting to go, it must have seemed to be a strange request.”_

_“We got permission to enter the grounds the next day at noon. We were not allowed to take anything out of the grounds, and we were not allowed to touch any of the relics. There were so many… statues and the like. I suppose the owners were afraid that we would break something that we weren’t supposed to. That night we slept peacefully, dreaming about the time that this curse would finally be behind us.”_

_“Geoff took lead of us the next day; he was the first to enter the grounds, with his team right behind him, followed by the rest of us. I stayed near the front so I could keep an eye on him. I wasn’t really watching Jack at the time, but I think that he must have been near the back; not a lot of people were fond of him because of his outburst as an invisible. “_

_Hazel interrupted before she could stop herself. “Why did you feel the need to keep an eye on Mr. Ramsey? You didn’t trust him as the leader of tactics?” In her mind, she heard Mark’s words from earlier, about how the class was starting to doubt his abilities. She wondered if it was normal for the class to distrust their leader._

_Ryan hesitated, taking a long time before he finally answered. “It’s not that I… Well, I was dating someone in the class. I was concerned for her safety,” he was trying to avoid the question, but Hazel didn’t back down._

_“You felt the need to protect her from Mr. Ramsey?”_

_“Well…” Ryan huffed. “It’s complicated. To make a long story short, do you remember hearing about a fire mentioned? The fire that killed our original teacher.”_

_Hazel felt her stomach suddenly start twisting into sickening knots; he wasn’t suggesting… “Yes,” she said softly._

_“I… I was there that day. No one knows this, but… I was supposed to be meeting Mr. McErrin for a tutoring session. I remember standing right outside the door of our old KM classroom, and I heard voices on the other side of it. It sounded like someone was angry. Not Mr. McErrin; he sounded calm like he normally did. It was Geoff, he was… yelling. I have no idea why, but I just figured that the stress of being responsible for all of us was getting to him. It made him angry, and I think that he snapped. I don’t remember what happened after that, really… Next thing I knew, I was standing in the one of the campus atriums, and there was talk about a fire in our classroom. They thought Mr. McErrin was still inside. The firemen were already on their way.”_

_“I don’t remember what brought me to the atrium, but it must have been fear. I think I saw Geoff starting the fire, and just blacked out the memory and ran. Geoff was my friend, I would never have wanted to admit that he was capable of such a thing. But what else could it have been?”_

_“I… ran from the campus and stayed away for a few days. I didn’t want to tell anyone, because I knew it wasn’t really Geoff, but the curse that had caused it. But I couldn’t help but doubt him after it. I… I never told him that I knew. Maybe he wouldn’t remember. But I can’t tell him. Please do me this favor and keep it a secret too. It would destroy him to know that he harmed anyone, most of all Mr. McErrin.”_

_Before Hazel could say anything close to a sorry, Ray said “We won’t, but we’re getting sidetracked. The class trip; what happened? You were in the grounds, and then what?”_

_“Right, sorry.” Ryan nodded. “There was a temple or shrine, whatever you call it, a holy building, at the top of a hill on the grounds. Geoff asked if we would all be willing to go to the top, kneel in front of it, and pray. I have never been a religious person in my life, but I agreed, just like everyone else. We made our way to the top, and I prayed like my life depended on it. Because it really did.”_

_“It must have been a sight, all of us on our knees, bowed in silent desperation. Even our sub was with us, praying right along. At some point I stole a glance over at Geoff, and he was… Well, it was obvious how much stress he was under. His eyes were squeezed shut, and tears were just streaming down. It had begun raining a little on our way up, but even then I could see it. I looked away, ashamed that I caught him crying. Soon, the rain and wind started picking up, and we were quickly drenched. But it wasn’t until we heard a loud crack of thunder hit something nearby that Geoff jumped up and ordered us all to descend in a calm and orderly fashion.”_

_“On our way down, though, my girlfriend… Riley, she was so close to the trees on the way down. I didn’t even realize until it had already happened, but there was another thunderous crack, and a blinding light near me. I was so close to it that I felt the static releasing into the air, making the hairs on my arms and neck stand up. She was just to my right, and then she was nowhere. I mean, I saw her but…”_

_He cleared his throat. “Sorry. After it happened, I was just standing there in shock, staring at the spot that she had been in, and everyone else lost it and started charging down the hill at full speed. It was chaos, and we were all bumping into each other on our way down.”_

_“There was a guy, he was like Geoff’s best friend ever since they met in class, he was being jostled about while trying to calm everyone down, and someone just pushed him too hard. He fell and disappeared over the edge of the trail that we were on. As far as I know, everyone else made it back down in one piece, and we all just dashed off of the grounds.” Hazel had a flashback of watching her sister disappear over a ledge, heard her terrified screams as she grabbed at the air for something to hold onto. Hazel drew in a shaky breath and forced herself to listen to Ryan._

_“I felt like such a coward later, like I left her out there alone, but we were all so scared. Once we were back at the hotel, Geoff was just pacing the lobby and muttering to himself that he needed to go back. I was supposed to go with him, so we could look for both of the bodies; honestly we weren’t thinking, because everything had already been reported to the police and they were already working on it.”_

_“Huh, wait a minute… That’s right, I’d almost forgotten. It was just past eleven, and Geoff and I were getting ready to leave so that we could look, when Jack walked into the hotel, looking shaken. Before we could ask what had happened, he stared at us with wide and wild eyes, and dashed off toward the stairs to get to his room. He never approached us about it, and we never asked. I wonder if something really had happened that day… But why wouldn’t he have told Geoff? He was head of tactics, he needed to know if something happened…”_

_The car became silent again, with Ryan so deep in thought that a couple of times Hazel was afraid that he wasn’t paying close enough attention to the road in front of him. Satisfied with the answers received, Ray didn’t ask any more questions, and Haze didn’t either out of respect._

_She hoped that their trip to Serenity would be less disastrous and bear quicker results. All she had to do was find the instructions that Jack had mentioned leaving behind whilst in his delirious state. She knew just the people to ask._

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Hazel had decided not to tell Mark, Cry, or any of her other friends about what she had heard during Jack’s breakdown. And she was fairly certain that Lindsay had been too much in shock to notice herself. Hazel thought to herself that she could never forgive herself if a close friend got into trouble. At first she considered looking on her own, but that would have taken too long.

She finally decided to tell Gavin, reasoning that if he was as dedicated to ending the curse as he said that he was, he would be the best ally. Gavin ended up telling Aaron too, rounding out their group to three. Hazel was adamant about not telling anyone else to keep the rest of their classmates out of danger. Of course she didn’t really want anything bad to happen to Aaron or Gavin either, but the fact still remained that she needed someone to help her look.

She had spoken with Gavin right after the trip to the beach, which had been about two and a half weeks previous. After doing his own research to figure out where the old KM classroom had been located (and whether or not it even still existed after the infamous fire that had taken the life of former KM teacher Charles McErrin) Gavin had contacted her saying to meet up at Jay’s Diner.

She started tapping her fingers impatiently. Finally, she spotted Gavin walking through the glass doors. He pulled his scarf away from his mouth as he approached her. “Hey. Bloody cold out there today.”

Hazel nodded. “Well, it is December after all.”

He looked around before settling in his seat. “Aaron’s not here yet? Or has he stepped out for a minute?”

“He’s not here, no. I thought you guys would come together or something.”

Gavin shook his head. “Nope. I don’t live anywhere near him, I don’t think. Anyway, I found out the location of the old KM classroom, as promised. It’s in the same building that our class is in now, but on the second floor, tucked in a corner. From what I gathered, there was a fire in there one year, and it’s been converted into a storage closet ever since. There wasn’t much information on how the fire got started or why, but I figured we didn’t need to know that much.”

Hazel shook her head, inwardly thinking about a young Geoff Ramsey lighting the fire that killed his teacher. Was it possible that Ryan had been mistaken somehow? But that wasn’t an important issue at the moment; what mattered was finding whatever it was that Jack left behind in that classroom.

Gavin was muttering to himself as he texted someone on his phone. “Aaron says he’s a few minutes away. Let’s wait a bit longer, and if he’s not here in like five minutes, I’ll text him to meet us in the auxiliary library of our building.”

Hazel was a bit irritated with his impatience, yet she understood at the same time, so she nodded in agreement. “Good idea. We need to find this thing quickly.”

“And you’re sure he didn’t mention what it was?” Gavin asked for the hundredth time.

She sighed before responding “Yes, I’m positive. Jack said something about instructions, but he didn’t say in what form they were. We could be looking for a piece of paper, a VHS, a cassette tape, anything.”

“I’m so glad we’re looking for those things in a storage room,” Gavin huffed while rolling his eyes. “But we’ll have to make the most of it. We’ll just be more thorough.”

They both spied Aaron walking toward the diner at a rapid pace and decided to meet with him outside. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only one walking toward them. “Ray! What a surprise. I didn’t think you left your apartment unless you had to,” Hazel laughed, meanwhile eyeing both Gavin and Aaron as if daring them to say a word about what they were doing.

“Drop the act, I know.” Ray replied, then pointed to a guilty-looking Aaron. “I ran into him on my way out of the main library and he spilled the beans immediately. I’m here to help you guys.”

“Well, I suppose that it can’t be helped _now_ ,” Gavin reasoned with a shrug of his shoulders. “Alright, we’re heading for the old KM classroom, it’s on the second floor of the building. We don’t know what we’re actually looking for, so keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual or out of place.”

“Don’t even know what to look for? Well, that’s reassuring,” Ray commented as all four turned in the direction of their usual building and strode over to it as quickly as they could without looking too suspicious. Hazel couldn’t help but shoot Aaron a chastising look for giving their plan away so easily.

“So why the secrecy, anyway? If you had told Mark or anyone from tactics, we’d have a larger group to help us look.”

“Well, the whole point of a small group is that we would be faster and less conspicuous,” Hazel tried to explain. “Besides, this could be a little bit dangerous. We didn’t want anyone else to get hurt in that case. I mean, we’re trying to fight the curse, there’s a good chance that it may fight back while we’re looking.”

“All the more reason to have more people there. Someone might know first aid,” Ray countered, and Hazel merely scowled at him instead of wasting her breath on a reply.

They entered the building in swift silence, walking past doorways with a confident pace. Quickly up the stairs, up to the second floor they went. Gavin finally held his arm out to slow the others down when they came to a barely-noticeable alcove at the end of the hallway, as if it had been purposefully hidden. “This is it,” he breathed, his voice nearing a whisper.

Everyone shifted their stances as if unsure how exactly to proceed; Aaron took an audible deep breathe, while the others were tensely silent. “Well, let’s go in. We have to look,” Ray finally said, moving to walk around Gavin and putting a hand on the handle.

When he pulled at the handle, the door gave way with slight resistance, as if the door hadn’t been used in a long time. They were met with a cloud of dust descending on them, and the room was musty and stifling; it was obvious that no one had bothered to maintain this room.

“Well, this is going to be a pleasant experience,” Ray commented upon seeing the state of disrepair, then opened the door further and strolled in. “Let’s do this quickly.” Murmurs of agreement could be heard from the rest of the group as they all crept into the still room, glancing about with doubt.

Aaron pointed to an aged bouquet of dead flowers. “Who the hell left these here?”

Hazel felt her heart throb painfully as she thought again about Mr. Ramsey. “They’re probably for the teacher that died in here from the fire,” she said quietly.

Aaron gasped. “You mean someone died in here? No wonder our classroom was switched to a different one!”

“Come on, we have to focus!” Gavin commanded, and their attention was brought back to their original mission.

They spent the better part of half an hour meticulously searching every corner and every desk compartment. At first, they did so without incident, but as they pushed further into the room, things got more dangerous. Aaron tripped and almost fell against the sharp edge of a set of office drawers. Gavin was nearly crushed by a clumsily-placed bookshelf. Everyone was constantly tripping over things and bumping each other as the dim light through the dusty windows started to give way to the night.

Finally, as they were searching in complete silence by the light of each of their cellphones, Hazel happened to stumble across something suspicious. She had opened a long cabinet lined against a wall near the back of the room, the corner furthest away from the door. At first she saw nothing but old school supplies, and heaved a sigh of defeat. But when she happened to glance up to the top, she spied what looked to be something wrapped in lined writing paper, taped to the top of the cabinet.

“Hey guys, I think I found it!” she exclaimed, ignoring the fact that she had just breathed in an excessive amount of old dust and musty air, ignoring too, that her voice echoed too loudly in the deathly quiet of the abandoned room.

“Thank god, I thought we would be in here forever!” Gavin squawked, rushing to her side in an instant, with Ray and Aaron making their way to the duo without tripping up. He gazed at the lump of tape and paper. “What the bloody hell is that?”

Hazel reached up and grasped the package with her fingertips, gently prying it off of the ceiling of the cabinet. “I don’t know. Looks like a cassette, maybe.” She started to rip open the paper and held it up for the boys to see. “Yep, that’s what it is! Luckily Shan’s car… er, my car has a tape player in it, so we can listen to it there.”

“What if something happens to the tape between now and the walk there? The curse is fighting us, remember? Let’s listen to it in here; there’s a cassette player on that shelf there,” Gavin insisted, grabbing the cassette from Hazel and taking it to the player that he saw.

Behind him, Hazel scoffed and Aaron whimpered “I really don’t wanna be in here more than we have to be, Gavin.” Gavin didn’t listen, and popped the tape into the machine, and pressed play. The machine whirred to life unwillingly, and through the static, they could make out the voice of young Jack Pattillo…

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

_My name is Jack Pattillo. I’m a member of the Kennewick Miscellaneous class at Kennewick College, 1999. If you’re listening to this tape, then you must be a part of the KM class too. I’m glad you found this tape, it may save your life. Sorry if it was too well hidden, but I have to make sure that no one outside of our class finds it; and there are a lot of people in and out of this old classroom ever since the fire… Guard this with your life._

_This isn’t just a way to save your life. I’m doing this for selfish reasons; to ease a guilty conscious. Maybe once I get my story out, I’ll find some peace and be able to get a decent sleep again._

_Everything happened on our trip to Serenity this winter break. We were only going to stay for a few days, barely a weekend. Geoff, our head of tactics, wanted all of us in the class to go, but I think a few people stayed away anyway. They were probably the smartest out of all of us._

_The first day there was nothing special, except that the change of scenery was nice for a lot of people. Some of them started to get excited, thinking that they were going to finally be safe after this trip. I was more skeptical, but I’ll admit that it was nice to be out of Kennewick for a while. Our substitute teacher came back from making arrangements at this supposed “holy grounds” that we were supposed to go to and told us that she had arranged for an afternoon timeslot._

_The next day, just a little past noon, we all went to the grounds together, knelt before the shrine at the top of the hill, and began to pray. All of us in quiet unison, just down on our knees begging for our lives. It was raining, and the storm eventually got so bad that Geoff had to make all of us stop and start heading down the hill for our safety._

_I stayed in the back, as I always did; I saw it all. I watched as one of my few friends, Riley disappeared in a flash of light before us and dropped to the ground. Her features were indistinguishable, and even her red hair was charred and unrecognizable. I’ve seen people get struck by lightning before, and it was never that intense. It was… unnatural._

_We all started to panic, and scream, and run. Then a second victim was claimed; a boy from the tactics team was shoved over the edge in the commotion. I can still hear him screaming now, as he fell over the edge of the trail. All that remained were-_

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

“Shit!” Gavin suddenly hissed as the footsteps that they had been hearing outside in the hallway stopped in front of their door. “We shouldn’t be in here! They’ll take this from us if we’re caught! _Hide_!” He ripped the tape from the machine without bothering to press the stop button first, and dove behind a bookshelf. Hazel and the others followed suit as they heard the telltale creaking of the door being opened.

Someone peaked into the room and shone a flashlight around the dark and deserted room. Everyone held their breath; they heard a male voice mutter “Weird, I thought I heard…” before they heard the click of the door being shut back in place, and the intruding footsteps receding into silence.

They waited a little longer before clambering out of their hiding spots. Hazel turned the light on her phone back on and squeaked, eyes widening in shock. “Gavin! Look!”

Gavin looked down into his hands, where the tape was. The cassette looked ruined, with the film trailing out of its shell and leading to the ancient machine on the shelf. “Oh, bollocks!” He tried tugging at the cassette, causing the film to snap out of the tape player and coming out in two separate streams. “Dammit!”

“Gavin, what the fuck! You act like you’ve never had a cassette tape before!” Hazel cried, taking the cassette away from him and trying her best to salvage the ruined brown strip of film. “I don’t know, can we fix this?”

Aaron turned his phone light on and peered closer at the tape. “Hmm, I might be able to. I _might_ , but I’m not sure.”

“It’s just as well, you’d better take it. After what just happened, I wouldn’t trust Gavin with it, and if my mom sees it, she might try to incorporate the broken tape into her next art project,” Ray sighed.

“Yeah, and I have a roommate, so not a good idea to bring it with me,” Hazel commented.

Gavin huffed. “Fine, Aaron, see if you can fix up the tape. We’ll have to reconvene later and listen to the rest. We didn’t hear a damn thing about stopping the curse; it was nothing more than the ramblings of a boring past classmate.”

“Well, there was probably way more to it, we just need the tape to work first. Aaron, let us know if you can do something about it,” Hazel said. With that, all four carefully made their way to the door, eager to leave the stuffy and ominous room.

It wasn’t until they were safely outside of the building that they all parted ways. Hazel started walking back to Jay’s Diner where her car was parked. She noticed Ray trailing behind her. “Are you planning on coming with me, or…”

“Oh, I just wanted to check up on you. We haven’t talked much lately,” Ray said with a shrug. “Like, it’s been so long that you apparently got a roommate without me knowing.”

Hazel laughed. “It’s not really a secret; I uh, couldn’t keep the apartment that Shan and I were staying in because it was being paid from a scholarship that she got. The money is still in her bank account, but there’s legal stuff and I pretty much can’t touch it; I don’t know who it will go to, Mom’s handling that part of it. Basically, I lost the means to pay on my own and Cry said I could stay with him for a while.” She shrugged. “No big deal.”

“Yeah, no big deal. You were just evicted, is all,” Ray said sarcastically with a shrug of his own. “Are you looking for a job?”

“Yeah, I am. I don’t want to feel like I’m taking advantage of Cry’s kindness. And you can’t fill a gas tank with no money,” Hazel sighed as they got to her car. She laid a hand on the green hood affectionately.

“What if you worked at my mom’s shop? It’s the perfect solution for everyone; you get paid, my mom stops nagging me about you coming over, my grandma gets a gossip partner. It’s perfect!” Ray suggested.

“Are you serious? I would love that, but can you guys afford to hire someone else?”

“Hazel, it is a family-run business. You are like family. It wouldn’t make sense to not have you there,” Ray admitted, his cheeks turning a shade of pink. He actually looked bashful, what a surprise.

“Then I accept. Just let your mom know first and see what she says, then text me details,” Hazel instructed as she pulled out her phone. It was beginning to buzz, and she figured that it must have been Cry, wondering where she was.

“Yeah, yeah, fine. I will,” Ray said, trying to sound nonchalant but the smile on his face spoke volumes; he was happy she would be around more. And as she drove to her new home and thought more and more about how cute Ray was when he was blushing (and over her!) she realized that she had the hugest grin on her face too.


	16. Serenity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER!!! I would like to state that first of all, I love each and every Youtube gamer mentioned within this fic, every single one of them. That being said, DUE TO THE NATURE OF THIS STORY, THERE WILL BE DEATHS. That doesn't mean in any way do I want something terrible to happen to these people; I love and respect them all. Sometimes when a writer gets a plot bunny stuck in their head, there's only one way to get it out. Anyway, this is a story that will be dealing with a lot of death, and trauma, so this is my trigger warning in case any of my readers can't handle it. Thanks for patiently reading this disclaimer, and enjoy the rest of the chapter!

“Alright guys, load your bags into the compartments carefully please. We don’t want anyone’s stuff falling out or getting mixed up during the drive,” Ryan instructed as the remaining students of Kennewick Miscellaneous packed their luggage away into their bus. It was just past five in the morning, and the sky was still dark. The air around them was foggy and cold, pervading even the heaviest of their coats.

Cry stood sullenly next to Hazel with his hands deep in his pockets as they waited for the rest of their classmates to finish putting their things away. “We are definitely not morning people,” Hazel muttered as a chilly breeze ruffled their clothing and hair. Cry grunted in response.

They both watched in silence as Mark jogged up to them after his luggage was put away, wearing his usual silly grin on his face. “Hey, guys! What a great morning, huh? It’s so peaceful out here at this time of day,” he said cheerily, seeming to not notice the scowls in place on Hazel’s and Cry’s faces.

“Mark, it is dark and cold and I want to be in my bed,” Hazel grumbled; Cry grunted in agreement next to her, not offering words of his own.

Her tone didn’t seem to bother Mark, who shrugged it off and replied “You can get plenty of sleep on the bus! It’s going to be about a six hour drive, so there won’t be much else to do, will there?” He laughed as Hazel’s scowl only deepened and Cry groaned next to her.

“How can you laugh about a six hour drive without any breaks? You’re a sick man, Mark!” Hazel accused, to which Mark merely shrugged with a sheepish grin.

“It feels like we’re going on an adventure, though! How can I not be excited when I get to spend six hours with some of my closest friends?”

“Don’t forget the whole reason that we’re going to Serenity is to try to break this damn curse,” a voice sounded behind Mark. Ray stepped forward to join the tiny group.

Mark immediately frowned and shot an irate look at him. “I could never forget. I just think it’s best to look at the positives; there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?” His snapping tone wasn’t characteristic of him, and Hazel frowned with worry. She thought that the stress of being the class protector was finally taking its toll on her friend.

Ray merely shrugged, which only seemed to aggravate Mark even more. “We need to keep our goal in sight if we really want this to work,” he reminded Mark.

“I think I know that better than anyone here,” Mark started to retort, but then stopped himself as he thought better of it. After a beat of silence, he muttered “I’d better make sure that everything is in order for our departure,” and with that glided off toward Ryan and the rest of his team, who were keeping a watchful eye on things.

Hazel couldn’t help but reprimand Ray for seeming to provoke Mark on purpose. “That was a bit uncalled for. Mark has enough on his mind without us all reminding him about it all the time,” she said, shooting him a look of disapproval.

Ray shrugged her off too and repeated “We need to keep our goal in sight if we want this to work.”

Hazel started to open her mouth to argue but all that came out was a tired sigh. She caught a glimpse of Cry’s face in the light of a nearby street lamp. His mouth was pulled down in a calculated frown, as if he was deep in thought. She poked at him through his winter coat, causing him to look over at her in question. He spoke his first words of the morning; with a weak smile, he said “No, it’s nothing. Just thinking too much about all of this, I guess. Happens when I wake up too early.”

“I almost didn’t come this morning. I was so tempted to just stay in bed, but my mom forced me up. I was so mad,” Ray commented lightly. Hazel had to laugh at the mental picture of Ray’s mother wrestling the covers off of him and yelling at him to get up.

“You think we’ve got it bad, at least we’re all in a bus together; Mr. Ramsey has to follow behind in his car all alone. He’ll be the worst off of everyone,” Cry muttered, eyeing the gloomy librarian as he crossed the parking lot from his car to speak briefly with Mark and the others.

Hazel turned to look at him too with mild surprise. “I didn’t know he was coming!” She started to feel a bit queasy, remembering the story that Ryan had told her about the fire. It must have showed on her face because then she noticed that Cry and Ray were both watching her with a mix of concern and curiosity. Forcing a normal smile on her face, she quickly explained it away by saying “I thought that it would just be our class attending this trip. It didn’t cross my mind that we might have more chaperones other than Ryan.”

“He looks worried,” Ray said quietly. He was right; when they scrutinized the former head of tactics, they could clearly discern a grim look on his face. Hazel and Ray exchanged meaningful glances, both having been the only ones to hear Ryan’s suspicions.

“Bad memories, probably. You can’t escape this class without them,” Cry suggested before holding a hand to his mouth to suppress a yawn. “I’m really fucking tired, by the way.”

Before long, they heard Ryan calling out “Alright, guys, I think that’s everyone! I hope that everyone is excited for this trip, it’s bound to be an adventure!” Despite his attempts to sound cheerful, he was met with some half-hearted responses, with some students not acknowledging him at all. The mood of the group was just as bleak as the drab, overcast morning. Hazel found herself feeling sorry for Ryan; he was trying so hard to keep everyone optimistic, but it just seemed that everyone didn’t have much energy left in them to be as hopeful.

They boarded the bus silently, with the only chatter heard being from the tactics team as they conferred with each other and Ryan about the upcoming plan. Unable to fight the fatigue any longer, Hazel leaned her head against Cry’s shoulder and started to drift off with their voices carrying over her subconscious.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

_She dreamed of fire, a room being slowly consumed by flames. There were people inside; one of them she recognized. She watched through blurred vision as Geoff and Ryan fought as if unaware of the fire surrounding them; lapping at the fabric of their clothing, catching at their feet and swirling around them as they struggled against each other._

_Above the roar of the flames she caught Michael saying something that she couldn’t hear clearly, but Mark’s voice cut through the noise with perfect clarity. “We can’t doubt it now, Michael; this is all we have. It **has** to work.” The pain in his voice made her heart ache; she turned her head in slow motion to search for him, to comfort him, only to find herself now alone in a wild maze. Hazy smoke filled the spaces around her as she choked for air, now searching desperately for Mark or Ray or Lindsay, **anyone that could find her**. _

_Reaching a hand up in front of her to guide her way through the smog, Hazel started to navigate through the twists of corridors and endless rooms. Each time she reached a dead end or took a wrong turn, the smoke got thicker. Before long she couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face. She started to hear maniacal laughter following behind her, and knew that she had to get out before it caught her, whatever “it” was._

_Panic rose in her chest as the cackling grew closer behind her, and the smoke stinging at her eyes made her cry even harder. She was scared, so scared, but then just as the laughter was about to overtake her, she felt a foreign presence envelope her and start guiding her through. “I’m here,” a familiar voice said. Suddenly the smoke finally started to dissipate._

_She started walking again once her vision was a bit clearer. Just as the exit was in sight (it had to be the exit, she could feel it) her heart both surged with joy and pain as she recognized her sister’s voice next to her ear. “This way.”_

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Hazel slowly opened her eyes and blinked into the sunlight streaming through the windows of the bus. The first thing that she noticed was how damp her cheeks felt and with a slight gasp moved away from Cry’s shoulder and tried to nonchalantly wipe at the tear streaks as she sniffled. When she finally chanced a glance at Cry, he peeked over at her with a smile and said “I think it’s my turn to take a nap,” and yawned immediately afterwards. She couldn’t help but giggle; he was thankfully either ignoring the fact that she had been crying in her sleep, or he just hadn’t noticed (though the former was more likely than the latter).

“Then go to sleep, silly.”

“Who will wake us up when the bus stops for a bathroom break?”

“I’m pretty sure that Ryan would let us know, Cry.”

Cry merely shrugged and settled snugly into his seat again, leaning toward her and closing his eyes. “I ‘spose you’re right,” he mumbled and ceased speaking, soon afterward emitting a light snore. Hazel chuckled again.

Glancing around the bus, she saw that most people were napping or quietly scrolling through their phones. When her eyes landed on Mark, he was sitting with his back to the window, legs stretched out over two seats; he was alone. The rest of the team had since scattered to be on their own. He stared blankly over to the set of windows opposite him, but when he noticed Hazel looking at him from the corner of his eye, he turned his head toward her with a reassuring smile. “It’s going to be okay,” he seemed to say with just that smile.

Hazel smiled back, though she wasn’t convinced. Leaning back into her seat and propping her head against her best friend’s, she closed her eyes again and decided that she wasn’t ready to be awake yet. As she felt her consciousness slip away again into a dreamless sleep, she thought she heard Cry mumble in his sleep “Please don’t be sad…”

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Looking up at the hotel, it was hard to tell if it was actually still in use or not. The Serenity Inn looked anything but serene. In fact, the entire town of Serenity held this dark and oppressive atmosphere over it that made Hazel and the remainder of her class instinctively gather as near each other as they could while gazing upon the antiquated building in front of them.

The brunette felt an involuntary chill run through her and she unconsciously inched closer into Cry’s personal space. She felt an arm wind around her own and with it a sense of reassurance.

“Man, this place is spooky… Shan would have loved it, I think.” Lindsay said aloud to Hazel’s left, and while she smiled at her friend, she couldn’t help the sad look that entered her eyes at the mention of her sister. The pain of her loss still stung, even now.

Seconds later, she heard an irritated grunt from Michael as he pulled away from his girlfriend and wandered off without a word. It suddenly occurred to her that he seemed to hate Shan being mentioned even more than she did. Looking at Lindsay’s face betrayed nothing, like she didn’t notice. In fact, it was as if she was determined not to react to him. Hazel didn’t ask, and nothing was said on either side.

“Come on, gang; let’s not keep the staff waiting! We should check in!” Ryan said aloud with false cheerfulness, and soon they were all shuffling into the hotel with reluctance.

The lobby wasn’t any more cheerful than the outer grounds had been. Though the room was dusted and clean, it still held a sinister air. “Guess our class budget was worse than I thought,” Cry half-whispered to Hazel. She couldn’t stifle the chuckle that followed, but immediately wished she had; the sound of laughter felt out of place in this building.

The class waited for their rooming assignments with some impatience as the oppressive feelings of the room built around them. The concierge was trying her best to be friendly but even that seemed forced and off; she seemed more nervous than anything. What was it about this place that made everything feel so wrong? Hazel couldn’t help but wonder that as Ryan fumbled with her room key and telling her that she would be in a room by herself. “The head count came up uneven, so you’re the only one with your own room. Pretty cool, huh?” Ryan chuckled.

“Oh! Yeah… Thanks. But if, you know, if someone else wanted it that’s fine too. I don’t care too much about privacy,” Hazel commented as she traced the number on her keycard.

Ryan’s face took on a look of melancholic remembrance. “I just feel like you deserve it most.”

“Playing favorites? My sister would have yelled at you.”

They both smiled but no more was said on either side and Hazel walked away from Ryan while pretending that she didn’t see the haunted look in his eyes that has been lingering over everyone lately.

Before she could so much as walk in the direction of the stairs, she felt a strong grip over her wrist as she was pulled in the direction of an opposing hallway. When she looked up to see familiar brown eyes peering down at her, she felt a smile spread across her face and a flush over her back. “Ray!”

“Come on, the tape,” he said simply, but smiled back warmly.  

She blinked in confusion a few times before asking. “Tape?”

Ray sighed. “Yeah, you remember the one that Free broke? _The_ tape, the one that will save our asses alive? That one,” he reminded her, as one would speak to a small child.

Her smile disappeared and was replaced by a somber expression, though she huffed indignantly first. “Yeah, okay, I remember, alright? I just… forgot for a second.”

Ray smiled again. “Hence why I’m reminding you. Aaron got it working again, apparently. He and Free are waiting for us over here, where no one will hear it. Well, hopefully no one hears it. At least not yet.”

They turned a corner, and tucked into an alcove were Gavin and Aaron. Gavin wore an annoyed expression when he finally spotted them. “About bloody time, this is important!” he huffed.

Ray glared at him. “Just turn on the tape.”

Aaron nodded, appearing less irate than the other Brit. “Will do.”  The tape started playing again, though it now sounded muffled and distorted at some parts.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

_We all started to panic, and scream, and run. Then a second victim was claimed…………can still hear him screaming now, as……edge of the trail. All that remained……………stepped over……broken glasses._

_Geoff didn’t take it well, he screamed and tried running to the same ledge as if he would be able to help. But he couldn’t get past the rest of us, and his girlfriend caught his elbow and pulled him forward, away from danger._

_I was never much of a runner, so I was guaranteed to be in the back as we charged down the trail. We were down a safer distance now, but adrenaline was still pumping us all up. So when I accidentally jostled a kid in front of me, and he started pushing back… I, I got so angry. I wanted to protect myself…_

_Please, it wasn’t my fault._

_We started shoving each other harder and harder. I had never talked to this guy before, but suddenly just the sight of his face pissed me off. I think his name was……… I threw the first punch, and then another. And another. I should have stopped, but all I felt was panic and rage. I wish I could blame it on the curse, say that something made me snap, but I… I just, I don’t know. But I know that what happened next was something I never meant to happen._

_I landed a hard punch to ……… jaw, hard enough to make him slam into a tree. He fell forward, but not completely. It was like something was holding him up, holding him where he was. He was struggling for a few minutes while I just watched, acting as if he were choking._

_I… Just watched. I just watched him struggling against something that I couldn’t see until he stopped moving and his body was swaying in the strong winds of the storm like a puppet, and my mind struggled to comprehend what the hell I was actually seeing. Another crack of thunder followed by a long, bright flash of lightning showed me what I couldn’t have seen in the dark._

_He had gotten tangled up in some of the twine that was used to hang up some of the sacred talismans that hung in the trees of that holy place. I’d just watched a man struggle, and strangle himself, until he was dead. I didn’t even think to help him._

_I screamed and left the body where it was, speeding to the entry gate where the rest of my classmates must have passed long before I did. There was no one in sight now, and I just ran down the street by myself, sobbing, screaming, and raving like a lunatic. Nobody came outside to investigate, and I saw lights quickly turn out in windows as I passed._

_I didn’t go back to the hotel for another hour or two. I just ran up and down streets, trying to convince myself that I hadn’t just watched someone die without trying to help. I tried to convince myself that I hadn’t killed him._

_When I finally got up the nerve to walk back into that damned hotel, I was soaking wet. I knew that I was probably going to be sick; but then again, I felt sick enough already without the rain and cold making me even more so. I cracked open the door leading to the lobby, sniffling and shivering, hoping that the staff wouldn’t question me. There wasn’t anyone sitting at the check-in desk, so I thought that I was safe._

_I saw that Ryan and Geoff were still awake though, they were sitting alone in the darkness of the lobby, just sitting there in the armchairs in the corner of the room. They looked as if they were getting ready to leave, and looked surprised to see me just coming in. I guess no one had even realized I was gone. Which meant that they probably hadn’t noticed that…………was missing either._

_We all stared at each other until I felt the fear overtaking me and I just ran up the steps towards my room. My roommate was still awake, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling. Crying. His eyes shifted over to me when I opened the door, but he didn’t question where I had been or why I looked so disheveled. I don’t think he had the energy._

_I didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. Anytime I drifted off, I had dreams about ………… face, contorting, struggling, gasping for air, before his wide eyes stared at me unseeing. Every time I woke up gasping for air myself, shaking. It wouldn’t be long before someone noticed he wasn’t with us._

_I kept thinking up ways to make it sound less like my fault and more like an accident, but I knew that no matter what, people would blame me. They had blamed me ever since the damn curse began. Blamed me for quitting, for denying them their perfect little invisible tactic. They would always blame me, and this was the final nail in my coffin. I cried myself to sleep until I woke up shaking from the same nightmare again, and again._

_But the next morning, no one asked where ……… was. It was like they had forgotten. There were gloomy looks all around whenever the other victims were mentioned, but no one ever mentioned ………_

_Finally, I brought his disappearance up myself, hoping that I could distance any suspicion away by asking. Everyone stared at me blankly, as if I had told a bad joke._

_Finally, Griffin said “Um, Jack… Who the hell is that?”_

_I insisted that ……… hadn’t returned with us that night. That I didn’t see him around. More strange looks. “There’s no one in this class like that, Jack. There’s no one with that name here,” everyone kept saying. The more they insisted that ……… didn’t exist, the more anxious I got. They even kept insisting that there had only been twenty-three people on the trip, instead of twenty-four._

_Finally Geoff mentioned how late I got in, and how wet my clothes had been, suggesting that I was starting to get a fever. Delusions. Everyone agreed. Our sub offered to take me to a nearby clinic just to be checked out. Just in case._

_I didn’t understand. I hadn’t imagined that face, the look in ………eyes as I watched him struggle to breathe, until that last gasp before he died. I didn’t imagine him, and I wasn’t delusional. But as the day wore on, and I thought about it more, there was only one reasonable conclusion that I could come to._

_He had been the extra student. He was the one… I killed him, and now no one remembered him._

_The extra was dead._

_I wondered if that meant that the curse had ended. I never told anyone what happened to me that night. Instead, I watched, and waited. The class trip ended, and we returned to Kennewick._

_It’s been a month now, and there haven’t been any more deaths. Everyone is so happy, they think that it must have been the prayers. But I know the truth. I killed our extra student._

_And this is the reason for this tape. Before I forget about ……… like the rest of my classmates have. Besides my confession, to ease my guilt, to erase my nightmares, it is also to give you some advice. A new tactic. You aren’t going to like it._

_You have to kill them. Kill the extra. Find them, and kill them._

_I got lucky, I killed ……… by accident. I don’t know how you can tell the extra from a normal student, so I can’t offer any advice there. But once you finally figure it out, if you ever figure it out, you know what to do._

_I’m sorry._

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

A dreadful silence descended upon the foursome. Hazel had brought her hands to her mouth a long time ago, and they were still there now. The boys all looked uneasy, but none more than Ray, who looked as if he was seconds away from emptying his stomach. Finally, Gavin cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable. “Well, there’s always that, I suppose.”

“I don’t like this. What if it’s a fake, the tape?” Aaron suggested weakly. No one said anything, but they all knew that it couldn’t be fake.

Finally, Hazel muttered “It’s not. The tape was tampered with, and not just by us. The name of the extra student, it was just gone. It had to be the curse.”

“There’s got to be another way,” Ray’s voice cut through the growing stillness. Hazel glanced at him, and gasped at how pale he had turned, remembering a time a long time ago, in a hospital elevator, back when she first met him…

“Apparently not. Sounds like we just have to get rid of… well, whoever it is. We just have to get rid of them.” Gavin stated, sounding almost accepting of the idea of murdering another student.

“That’s cold, Gav. Do you really think that you could kill one of us?” Aaron asked in a slightly disapproving tone. The look on Gavin’s face left no doubt that he could do so without thinking twice about it. “Well, we don’t know who it is for our year. So I guess there’s really nothing we can do, is there?”

“There are ways to tell,” Gavin was becoming more serious as they settled into the alcove and talked on. “False memories, they can’t be perfect, can they? Because they just aren’t real. If we can catch them in a lie...”

“Dead people are supposed to be cold,” Ray responded, though he seemed unwilling to add more to his statement. Hazel felt a chill go through her, though she couldn’t figure out why. He had told her that before, but why was he so unwilling to say it now…?

Ray stood up abruptly from where he was sitting, startling Hazel out of her thoughts. “That’s enough of this today. We heard the tape, and now we know that there’s nothing we can do right now. Let’s just try praying on the sacred ground, like we’re supposed to. Maybe it really will help.”

“But on the tape, Jack said that it didn’t really do anything…” Aaron interjected.

Gavin started to say in a heated manner “Besides, we can find out who it is… One way or another. There are ways. Smoke them out.” The dark undertone of his words was not lost on anyone, and Hazel didn’t want to be anywhere near Gavin at the moment.

“Or Jack really was some crazy kid who caught a fever and due to feverish delusions combined with hysteria from losing so many classmates he imagined the whole thing. _We don’t know_. Take his story with a big grain of salt, because it’s probably not true.”

“But the tape took out the extra’s name…”

 “Or Gavin just damaged the tape really bad, and the blips are a coincidence. Prove me wrong, otherwise I won’t believe it!” Ray replied in equal heated manner, then stormed off down the hallway.

“I don’t trust him,” Gavin said suddenly. Hazel stood and quickly followed after him, not saying anything to Gavin or Aaron as she left (though she didn’t like leaving Aaron… or anyone… alone with Gavin with the way that he was talking lately). There was something so strange about how adamant Ray was, not believing the tape.

He seemed… desperate to not believe it. Or was it something else? Every time Hazel thought that she knew who Ray was, he just became a mystery all over again, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. It worried her a little.

But no matter what she did, she couldn’t get Ray to talk to her about it, not even with her incessant questions. At one point, while they were sitting together outside, waiting to hear about the plans for lunch, she thought that he was going to say something important. She could feel it in the way that he took a deep breath and gave her a meaningful look. The kind of look that sent her heart hammering away in her ribcage. But just as quickly, the look was gone; he closed his mouth and pointedly looked away, refusing to say anything more. Soon she gave up and sat sullenly next to Cry until Ryan came outside to tell them what they were doing for lunch.

\--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

During dinner, the entire class sat in the hotel dining room as the night staff served them before getting off shift. The room was filled with silence and gloomy ambience. Hazel sat at a table of four, with Cry and Ray on either side of her, and no one opposite her; they were the only table of three.

Mark was sitting nearby, with Michael, Lindsay, and Ryan at his table. Richard was nearby, but opted to sit with his girlfriend instead of the rest of the team. Rose seemed pale and a bit sickly, as she had been since earlier that morning.

Hazel constantly felt Mark’s eyes on her, and though she probably wouldn’t have noticed otherwise, felt an unsettling knot form in her stomach whenever she found him looking at her. The dark presence of the hotel made her more aware of her surroundings, and she had noticed his attentions to her more acutely ever since they had arrived in Serenity. She felt a painful throb in her chest whenever she thought what his intentions to her might be, though she wouldn’t let herself think about it, wouldn’t admit why it hurt her.

They were in the middle of that silent, depressing dinner when Michael stood up from his chair without warning, glaring at the center of the table as if making an important decision. Everyone looked at him with a questioning gaze, except for Lindsay and Mark, who seemed respectively apprehensive and grave.

“I think I need to say something,” Michael said to no one in particular, though he seemed to be directing his words at both Ryan and Mark. Lindsay sighed and put her hands to her face as if dreading what was coming next, but did nothing more to stop her boyfriend from speaking.

“Uh… Sure, I guess? Say what you have to,” Ryan said, clearly clueless as to what Michael might have to say. Mark said nothing, just stared back up at Michael with a warning in his features. Finally, he closed his eyes and nodded once in assent.

Michael cleared his throat and continued. “We’ve been dancing around the issue forever, and I’m sick of it. We’ve lost people. Classmates, friends, people that we’re close to. People that we used to see every day, and now we’ll never see them again.”

It was silent, so he continued. “I’m sick of it! Like everyone is thinking the same thing, but no one will voice it because they’re afraid of how they’ll look. I don’t care, I’m saying it because someone _needs_ to say it.”

Hazel saw Ray tense up from the corner of her eye, and that knot in her stomach grew. “Please, Michael, don’t do what I think you’re doing…” she thought to herself, already knowing that she was right.

“We all know whose fault this is. The first death started a month after the semester started. A whole damn _month_ passed by without anyone dying! You know why? Because our tactic was airtight. We had an invisible.” He shot a glare in Ray’s direction, who by now was sighing and moving his food around on his plate without actually eating it. “We could have been safe… All we needed was for someone to carry on for the rest of the year, be brave and take it so we could all live. But that was ruined. And Ray’s the one that fucked it all up.”

Sounds of protest came from Cry and Hazel, though Ray himself had yet to look up from his plate, staring daggers at it as if willing it to explode. “So we got a new classmate, and maybe we should have explained to her what was going on before it all went to shit. Fine, I’ll take responsibility for that. As a member of the tactics team, I should have been on top of that. It was my fault. But Ray? He hasn’t even said anything about it. He hasn’t acted the least bit remorseful about his part in this mess. As soon as the invisible tactic was abandoned, he just started acting like a normal part of the class again. He didn’t fucking care, even when people started to die. I’m partly responsible, yes. But him even more so, and I wanna hear a fucking apology for it.”

“Michael, what the fuck?” Hazel yelled, glancing between both men in desperation. She looked to Lindsay for back up, but Lindsay just stared out of a nearby window; she was ignoring the scene before her. She would be no help.

Cry stood his ground with his friends. “That’s fucked up, man. You can’t lay the whole thing on one person, mistakes were made all around. You’re not accepting you’re part in it, you only say that you are!”

“I still want a goddamn apology for all the things that we’ve had to suffer! We lost important people, and he never talks about it! I want a fucking apology! For Sean! For Shan, for everyone!” Michael roared. There were barely audible whimpers heard from Richard’s table, as he tried to comfort his ailing girlfriend; she was becoming stressed out by the tense atmosphere in the room It was about to get worse.

Ray finally looked up from his plate, a look of outrage on his face. “You think this is what I wanted? This is the last fucking thing I wanted to happen!”

“Then act like it! Apologize!”

“Ray, you don’t have to…” Hazel started, still glaring at Michael.

“Yeah, fuck this, don’t listen…” Cry started.

“Fine.” Ray’s blank voice rang out, leaving a frigid silence in its wake. “You think my words are magic? Will me saying sorry bring them all back, make things better? Will it fix you? Fine, I’ll do it if that’s the case.” Ray stood from his seat and looked at Michael with a determined look.

“I’m sorry.” He looked around the room, saying it again, unable to mask the underlying tremor to his voice. “I’m sorry. I never wanted this, and I’m sorry. I would have stayed invisible forever, if it could have helped. That didn’t happen, and I’m sorry-”

A sudden cry of anguish cut him off, and gasps were heard around the room as Richard cried out his girlfriend’s name, and she fell limply out of her seat onto the hardwood floor.


End file.
